


Occult Nights

by TheWanderingPiney



Series: Hex Girls [1]
Category: Scooby Doo - All Media Types, Scooby-Doo! and the Witch's Ghost (1999)
Genre: Gen, Originally Posted on FanFiction.Net
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-23
Updated: 2020-04-23
Packaged: 2021-03-02 01:54:53
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 18
Words: 68,118
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23747158
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheWanderingPiney/pseuds/TheWanderingPiney
Summary: The world is full of magic. Or at least that's what Thorn thought after the defeat of Sarah Ravencroft. Despite years of searching, she hasn't seen any supernatural magic since Oakhaven. When a Hex Girls show is unexpectedly cancelled, an opportunity arises to explore a famous occult museum. Little does Thorn know that she's about to drag the band into a world of danger. R&R
Series: Hex Girls [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2123067
Comments: 6
Kudos: 13





	1. Bad Dreams, Sister Thorn

**Author's Note:**

> Hey all,
> 
> Decided to finally repost my Hex Girls fanfic here just to see what happens. Bar a few spelling and grammar corrections, the fanfic remains unchanged. Hope everyone enjoys the story. Review if you like.
> 
> ~The Wandering Piney

" _ Here's the spell," Velma said handing the open book to the fair-skinned girl with ravenette hair."It's up to you now Thorn!" _

" _ But I…" Thorn stuttered as she stared bewildered at the yellowed pages and strange inscriptions. _

_ Everything was happening so fast—the ghost of Sarah Ravencroft, an actual witch with real magic, was released from her spell book by her descendant Ben and had incapacitated the rest of the Scooby gang—and Thorn felt overwhelmed by all of it. How could all of this be happening, witches and magic weren't supposed to be real. And with Velma telling Thorn that she was the only one who could stop Sarah, she was under pressure. _

"… _ can't do it," Thorn whimpered under her breath, only audible to herself. _

_ Before she could do anything, five massive tree roots erupted from the earth and surrounded the two girls, the ends of the roots curling up and ready to strike at their horrified victims. _

_ The two women gasped in terror. _

" _ Ah ha ha ha ha," the ghost of Sarah Ravencroft laughed in the distance, her arms raised to the sky in excitement; it was almost as if the undead witch derived pleasure from watching the hapless victims. _

" _ The book is useless to a mere mortal like you," the witch taunted as she pointed her gnarly hand at Thorn. _

_ Thorn trembled upon hearing the ghost's mockery. She's right I can't do this, the scared girl thought; I don't know what I'm doing. _

_ A sixth root emerged from ground, this time shaped like a human arm, and tried to grab the book from Thorn, causing her to gasp. But to her surprise, the book suddenly began to glow and a beam of light blue energy struck the branch causing it to disintegrate. _

_ What the hell was that Thorn thought, her eyes widening in shock as she was taken back by sight. _

" _ But not to a Wiccan," Velma noted in an attempt to reassure Thorn of her ability. _

_ Velma had a point, that the spell book could only be used by a Wiccan, which Thorn was. _

" _ Nay," Sarah Ravencroft shouted, clawing the air. "I'll stop thee myself." _

_ The ghost flew straight at the two girls with an expression of anger and hate on her face. _

_ Thorn froze as she watched the enraged phantom close the distance between each other. Her heart was pounding, her breathing quickened as her body shook. She could feel the sweat dripping down her face and she could barely hold the spell book with her trembling hands. _

_ Thorn suddenly felt an arm grab her shoulder, breaking her out of her shock. _

" _ Hurry Thorn! Read!" Velma pleaded with the black-haired girl, pointing to the spell that could seal away the undead witch. _

_ Thorn looked back at the spell book and managed to catch her breath. She could feel Velma trembling as she clung to her arm and shoulders. _

" _ Ancient evil get thee hence, only good can recompense for the misdeeds that you have done," Thorn nervously recited. _

_ Both girls reeled back in surprise as the book emitted blue sparks when Thorn read. Thorn quickly glanced up to see Sarah even closer, her outreached arms ready to grab the book. The Wiccan looked back at the book with a sense of urgency. _

" _ Witch return from whence you come!" Thorn shouted the final part of the spell with newfound confidence. _

_ The book sparkled even brighter as it violently shook on its own and blue energy radiated from it. There was a brief flash of blue light and then…nothing. _

" _ What!" Thorn cried in shock, losing the confidence she had just gained. "I-it didn't work," she weakly muttered. _

_ Tears welled up in her eyes and her posture slouched in defeat. Thorn couldn't move as she started crying. This was the end. She couldn't do anything as the spell book was removed from her hands. _

" _ Aha ha ha ha ha," Sarah Ravencroft cackled as she raised the spell book into the air. "You're a weak, pathetic excuse of a Wiccan. Tis not surprising that I could defeat thee with ease!" _

_ The witch's words repeated in Thorn's head. Weak. Pathetic. Failure. Thorn fell to her knees. _

_ The ghost hovered above Thorn and Velma as dark green energy swirled around her, signifying her power. _

" _ To start my revenge, I shall bring upon thee which thine family hast put me through. Thou shall know what true pain feels like!" the witch shouted. _

_ Sarah flipped a few pages and recited a spell: _

" _ Darkness hear my plea, bring my vengeance upon those who imprisoned me. Seal away this Wiccan of light, so she may feel an endless plight!" _

_ The book vibrated and black energy radiated from it. The witch pointed the open book at the terrified Wiccan. A dark vortex formed in the center of the pages. Sarah released the book, which slowly descended to the ground. The vortex grew in size as the book landed on the ground. _

_ Too scared and defeated to move, Thorn could do nothing as a beam of black energy shot out from the vortex and grabbed ahold of her legs. _

" _ Agh!" Thorn shrieked, her legs burning in pain. _

_ There was a sudden tug and the black energy pulled her closer to the vortex. Thorn panicked and turned to the bespectacled woman in desperation. _

" _ Velma, help me!" the Wiccan cried as she reached out her arm in an attempt to find help. _

_ Velma tried to grab the poor girl's hand but another tree root quickly ensnared her and pinned her to the ground. _

" _ NO!" Thorn shouted more desperate than ever. _

_ The black beam continued dragging Thorn through the dirt and closer to the vortex. She flailed her arms in a vain attempt to grab hold of something, but the only thing she found were fistfuls of cold earth. All of her attempts to wiggle free from beam failed. Tears were streaming down her eyes, muddying her makeup. _

" _ Please! Somebody help me!" Thorn screamed with her last bit of hope, but nobody was going to save her. _

_ Thorn's screaming and flailing only increased as her legs disappeared into the vortex. Thorn heard the ghost of Sarah Ravencroft laughing with evil hysteria as the Wiccan's body further disappeared into the vortex; first her waist, then her stomach followed shortly by her chest , her left arm and finally her shoulders. Soon only her head, neck and a single flailing arm remained outside the vortex. But that wouldn't last for long. _

" _ No, please no," she cried one last time as her neck disappeared into the vortex. She closed her eyes, not wanting to see what happened next. _

"Aiiiiiiiyeeeee!" Thorn screamed at the top of her lungs.

"Thorn! Thorn! You're safe," a voice said.

Thorn opened her eyes and found herself in her bed on the Hex Girls tour bus, still in her black sleepwear, though she was gasping for breath and was covered in sweat.

Thorn turned to see Dusk and Luna standing at the side of her bunk with concerned expressions on their faces.

"Yeah, you can relax now, you were just having a bad dream," Dusk said.

"More like a nightmare," Thorn began as she collected herself. "I guess it must be from all the stress from all touring we've done recently."

It was a reasonable explanation. This was the first major tour for the Hex Girls: a nine month US-Canadian tour consisting of numerous live performances and the release of several new songs. The Hex Girls had primarily stayed within central and eastern Massachusetts around their hometown of Oakhaven, with only the occasional performance in a neighboring New England state (though they did get a chance to perform in Australia, though that wasn't a fun experience). With so much traveling, performing, and songwriting, it was no surprise that up-and-coming band would experience some stress.

But both Dusk and Luna shot glances at each, neither one of them seemingly buying Thorn's explanation.

"Umm, we've only been touring for a month and we've been busier before," Dusk stated. "And you were completely fine."

"Dusk has a point," Luna agreed. "Something else is bothering you. What was your dream about?"

Thorn paused to gather her thoughts. She didn't want to recount the terrifying experience, but she knew her friends would help her sort everything out.

"Well…" Thorn hesitated. "It was about the night… Sarah Ravencroft was released."

"Oh…" Luna said.

"Yeah, it started out like how it actually happened; everyone was captured and Velma handed me the spell book," Thorn explained. "But when I recited the spell to seal her away….nothing happened."

"Hmm. Anything else," Luna asked, moving her hand to chin.

Thorn paused for a moment, sighing in the process.

"Sarah got the book," Thorn said, almost choking on the words. "And she… was sealing me away in the book."

"That's dark," Dusk commented.

Luna smiled and put her hand on Thorn's shoulder. "But that's not what happened in reality, now was it?"

"Yeah, you kicked that dead hag's ass!" Dusk remarked causing Thorn to smile a bit.

"Exactly," Thorn said, feigning cheerfulness and sounding more like her regular self.

The black-haired girl jumped out of bed and stretched her arms.

"I'm not going to let one bad dream ruin this tour," Thorn said to conclude the subject.

"Now that's the Thorn I know," Luna said with a smile.

"Alright, then. I'm going to hit the bathroom and finally get my day started," Thorn said, the other two girls nodding in agreement.

* * *

Despite seemingly cheering her friend up, Luna couldn't shake an uneasy feeling she had about Thorn's dream.

"It doesn't make sense," Luna wondered aloud. "After all this time, why would Thorn suddenly have dreams about the Ravencrofts?"

Dusk, who had made her way over to the band's fridge in search of breakfast, merely shrugged.

"Who knows," Dusk stated as she grabbed a cup of yogurt and a spoon. "Sometimes this stuff just happens."

Luna shook her head and placed her hand on her chin. 'Just because' was not an acceptable answer for the red-haired girl. It had been several years since the witch's ghost incident in Oakhaven, and while the first few months afterwards had been difficult for all three of them, they managed to overcome the trauma through many group therapy sessions and—perhaps more importantly—success of their first album and the start of their musical career after they were picked up by SD Records (an affiliated record company of Warner Bros. Records based in Boston). The newfound success of The Hex Girls kept the three musicians quite busy and helped them move on from the supernatural incident. In fact, the girls released an album about that night in Oakhaven, which included the popular song "The Witch's Ghost", as a way to show that they had overcome the trauma and fears of the ghost.

But now Thorn was having a nightmare and this deeply concerned Luna.

"If she was regularly having nightmares, she would've told us long before now," Luna commented, glancing at Thorn's desk. Scattered amongst several music sheets and half-written lyrics were books on magic, herbalism, Wicca practices, psychics, the occult and other various paranormal phenomena. One title caught Luna's attention:  _ Dreams and Omens: How to Interpret Yourself and Your Future Through Dreaming. _

_ Ridiculous, _ Luna thought, chuckling at the notion that the piece-of-crap book could be right.

"So let's not worry about it then," Dusk nonchalantly replied to Luna while carelessly twirling the spoon around in her hand.

Dusk's comment broke Luna's focus on the book and she quickly turned to the blond-haired girl. Luna gave her friend a disapproving stare.

"Hey, I'm trying to make sure Thorn is okay," Luna snapped back. "Are you really not concerned about her?"

Dusk put down her breakfast and got up from her seat.

"I was," Dusk explained, with a hint of annoyance in her voice. "But we cheered Thorn up and now she's fine. If she isn't bothered by it anymore, then I'm not going to get worked up about one bad dream."

Dusk paused for a moment.

'But…" Luna began before she was cut off.

"But it was just a bad dream. Everyone has them," Dusk exclaimed. "Luna, you're just overthinking things again. Chill out."

Luna was getting irritated with Dusk, but the drummer did bring up some good points.  _ Maybe I am just overthinking this,  _ she thought. Luna closed her eyes and took a deep breath.  _ Calm. Down.  _ The pianist opened her eyes.

"Alright, but can we at least keep a close eye on Thorn, just in case anything else happens," Luna responded as she regained her usual calm and collected tone.

"Fine," Dusk said, rolling her eyes before tossing the empty yogurt cup into the trash can.

"Thank you," Luna replied, though she was still a bit annoyed at Dusk.

A few moments later, Thorn emerged from the small bathroom.

"Finally! I didn't think she'd ever get out of there," Dusk joked as she went to grab her toothbrush from her desk.


	2. The Historic Alexander Levre House and Occult Museum

After an hour, the three girls were ready to start their day. Thorn sat at her desk and was cleaning her work area. She glanced out the bus's window. On the sill, there was a small wooden bowl filled with ash and small gemstones placed on a pentacle drawn in salt; two burnt-out candles were on both sides of the bowl.

Thorn sighed. She'd conducted the ritual a few days ago. According to one of her books, it was supposed to contact a nature spirit. Thorn grabbed a nearby garbage can and with one swift motion, pushed the entire setup into the trash.

She moved the trash can aside and rested her arms on the desk. She sat there for a moment before turning her attention to the stack of books on her desk. She momentarily caught sight of  _ Dreams and Omens  _ and the guitarist shuddered.  _ Don't worry about it anymore  _ Thorn reassured herself as she reached for the top of the pile where a red and black leather-bound book rested. She retrieved her journal and opened to the first blank page. She grabbed a pen and started writing:

'Last night I had a nightmare about Sarah Ravencroft. I couldn't stop her as the spell didn't work and she was dragging me into the book. As terrifying as it was, I won't let this dream bother me. In reality, I beat the Ravencrofts and they are gone forever. There are now more important things to worry about than a few ghosts from the past.'

She paused. Something still didn't feel right. She looked at  _ Dreams and Omens _ . She recalled some of the teachings from it and jotted down some notes directly beneath the entry she just wrote.

'Am I still afraid of Sarah?'

Thorn tapped her pen on the desk. She glanced at the trash can and crossed the sentence out.

'The ritual failed. Once again, no magic.'

As much as she joked about having magical abilities with her friends and fans, Thorn had never cast another spell or used any magic since that night in Oakhaven. That's not to say she didn't try; the Wiccan spent years researching magic. She performed countless rituals, incantations, prayers and other ceremonies but nothing ever happened. Thorn didn't talk much about these failed attempts and often conducted them alone, ashamed of her inability to utilize her Wiccan heritage.

She closed her journal and moved it aside. Wanting to take her mind off the touchy subject, she decided to work on something she knew she could get results with: her herbal remedies.

She got up from her seat and opened a cabinet above her cot. She started taking inventory of her herbs. Mostly self-taught from reading Wiccan texts, Thorn regularly made herb-based remedies; her signature peppermint-clove tea and vapor was often used by the band to soothe their vocal chords after performances. Thorn glanced over each container filled with dried leaves and other plant material. Aloe vera. Konjac. Barberry. Goldenseal. White Willow. St. John's Wort. Each container passed through her hands as she checked on the contents before returning them to their rightful spots.

"Looks like they're all good," Thorn affirmed herself.

As she finished checking the herbs, Thorn noticed that the tour bus had pulled into a service station.

"Why are we stopping?" Dusk asked as she removed her headphones and climbed out of her cot.

"Damnit!" A male voice shouted from the front of the bus.

"Guess we're about to find out," Thorn said as she closed the herb cabinet.

A set of curtains at the front of the bus parted and in stomped a man dressed in a dark purple jacket, a green shirt, black pants and boots. He brushed his sleek black hair back and adjusted in rose-tinted glasses in an attempt to regain his normally cool and quirky composure, but he clenched his cellphone in his fist; Thorn noticed the words "Call Ended" and a phone number briefly flash before the screen turned black.

"Darlings, I hate to break it to you," Gus Boggs, the manager of The Hex Girls began. "But your show in New York just got cancelled."

"What!? Why on earth would they do that!?" Thorn shouted.

"Well," Gus explained. "Some idiot thought it would be a good idea to rob the venue while dressed as a fire monster. Those famous investigators and their dog managed to catch the guy, but not before he burnt half the place down."

_ Mystery Inc. saves the day.  _ Thorn smirked at the image of a terrified Shaggy and Scooby inadvertently stopping the crook. It'd been a couple years since she last saw the gang. They were busy as their mystery solving adventures made them tremendously popular and they had pretty much become celebrities. Thorn hoped that they were alright from their latest escapade.

"So what are we supposed to do now?" Luna asked while crossing her arms.

"It'll probably take me a day, but I might be able to get you girls a small gig outside the city," Gus replied already glancing down at his beeping phone.

"Ugh," Dusk groaned, falling into her bed. "This sucks."

Gus sighed. "Until I fix this, we'll book a nearby hotel for the day. Once we're there, you girls can take the day off."

Gus dialed his phone and he went back to the front of the bus.

"At least twenty-five grand down the drain," he mumbled as he put the phone up to his ear and disappeared behind the curtain.

"Ouch," Luna said, gritting her teeth.

Luna and Thorn stood in the center of the corridor for a few moments before returning to their respective work areas. Thorn sat down and stared out the window as the bus drove down the road. It was only a ten minute drive to the hotel and Thorn started rummaging through her books, still pissed about losing the gig.

"So where the hell are we?" Dusk asked, breaking the silence.

Luna pulled out her phone and quickly looked it up."Shardon, Connecticut."

Thorn's eyes widened and she smiled upon hearing the town's name. She quickly went through her pile of books and pulled out a large dark blue one.  _ Dark Secrets of the Forgotten Gods _ by Alexander Levre.

"Shardon was the home of the famous occultist Alexander Levre," Thorn exclaimed holding the book up to her friends. "After his death, his house and family cemetery became a museum dedicated to the occult."

The black-haired girl paused for a minute, her smile growing larger.

"And it's said to be haunted," Thorn concluded, giving her friends a wink.

"That sounds cool," Dusk said, getting out of bed.

"Isn't Levre the guy who claimed a bunch of witches were using magic to take over the world or something?" Luna said from the couch.

"Well, I guess that's one way of looking at it," Thorn said shrugging her shoulders. "But it's possible, after all magic is real."

"You really believe this guy?" Luna asked with a raised eyebrow. "We've seen two people with magic and one of them was dead. I sincerely doubt there is a clandestine group of magical people controlling the world."

"I think you mean three people," Dusk interjected, pointing at Thorn.

Thorn blushed. "Well, I only did one spell," she meekly laughed.

"Exactly, one time several years ago," Luna clarified.

Thorn's smile faded and she lowered the book.  _ She's right _ .

Luna smiled and walked over to Thorn, placing her hand on Thorn's shoulder. "I'm sorry for saying that."

"Don't worry about it, it's all good," Thorn said with a half-smile.

"Hey, there's no reason why we can't check out that museum. After all, we have the day off," Luna replied.

"Ooo! Oooo! Ooo! We have to find a club or bar afterwards," Dusk added jumping up and down in excitement.

"Sure, why not," Thorn laughed.

* * *

After checking into the hotel, the girls booked a cab and went to the museum. Stuck between her two friends in the backseat of the cab, Thorn got a poor view of the three-story house as the vehicle drove along the stonewall-lined road.

"This place looks pretty rad," Dusk said looking at the old house.

The cab turned along a bend in the road giving Thorn a better glimpse of the Levre House. It was a dark gray brick structure built in typical mid to late 19th century style. The roof was pitch black which made it stand out against the blue sky, with the only discernible feature being a single gray chimney. There were four windows outlined with gray frames on each floor of the house, with a single rounded window above them. Even in the distance, the windows seemed foggy and distorted, as if to prevent people from looking in or out. Then there was a large gray front door taking up much of the house's exterior. The house itself was enclosed by a gray stonewall and was dotted by several giant oak trees. The trees cast great shadows over the house and kept it in constant darkness.

"It sure looks creepy," Luna noted as the cab pulled up to the entrance to the house.

"Seems appropriate for an occultist," Thorn replied as she undid her seat belt.

"Can't argue with that," Luna replied with a shrug.

The girls exited the cab and headed down a brick walkway toward the entrance. A cool breeze blew across the property, causing Thorn to pull her jacket closer to her body. The girls passed a metal sign saying "Historic Levre House and Museum of Occult Practices" that was posted several feet from the steps leading up to the door. A small sign in one of the windows indicated that the museum was open.

Dusk reached the door first and threw it open. The girls entered the building.

"Welcome to the Levre House and the Museum of Occult Practices!" A male voice exclaimed.

The girls saw a middle-aged man dressed in a white polo shirt and a simple pair of jeans approach them.

"I'm the curator of this museum," the man explained. "Most of the items on display come from Alexander Levre's personal collection. The first floor contains items about various occults, secret societies, spiritualism and other traditional practices from around the world. The second floor contains exhibits about Mr. Levre's personal life. I'll happily answer any questions you have."

"Cool. Thanks for the info," Thorn said nodding to the curator.

The curator went back to the front desk and left the girls on their own. They headed down the hall to some of the exhibits.

"Hey, this stuff is pretty sick," Dusk remarked as she removed a replica sword from an exhibit about the famous Knights Templar.

The blonde drew the sword from the sheath and pretended to swing at an imaginary enemy, nearly hitting Thorn and Luna in the process.

"Jeeze! Put that away before you chop someone's arm off," Thorn said as she and Luna jumped back.

"Aww, you're no fun…" Dusk sighed, still doing some mock swings.

Unfortunately, the last swing accidentally hit a bust of a Templar leader, causing it to violently rock back and forth. Luna rushed to the bust and caught it before it fell over. Thorn crossed her arms and shook her head while Luna glared at Dusk.

"Let's not touch anything else," Luna said as she got the bust back in place.

"Heehee. Okay, my bad," Dusk giggled as she returned the sword to its proper spot, her face blushing momentarily.

With disaster averted, the girls went on to check out the other exhibits. Thorn recognized many of the groups featured in the museum: There were ragged ceremonial robes and drums from Haitian Vodou; original texts from the Ordo Templi Orientis; a first edition text of the Satanic Bible and  _ The Book of Law _ ; a 13th century dagger used by the Hashshashins; medieval manuscripts detailing alchemical recipes; texts from the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn; late 19th century photographs of the Native American Ghost Dance as well as artifacts from various tribes; historical Ouija Boards; various sculptures depicting deities from around the world. One wall was entirely dedicated to the various rites of Freemasonry which included paintings, tracing boards and other items used in different ceremonies.

Thorn decided to check out the deity statues. She recognized the first statue as the goat-headed Baphomet, but she was unfamiliar with the second one. It resembled a large man with a cat head holding a bowl.

"Unknown Cat God. Statue recovered by police from Moonscar Island, Louisiana while investigating the disappearance of several tourists from the island," Thorn read aloud. Moonscar Island. That sounded familiar. She was certain Mystery Incorporated mentioned it after they defeated the witch's ghost. Something about zombies and werecats.

"Hey Thorn, you need to check this out," Dusk said while motioning with her hand for Thorn to join her.

Thorn walked over to Dusk and immediately noticed the exhibit sign: "Wicca." Thorn looked at the various items on display. Her eyes quickly caught sight of an old, leather-bound book opened to a spell.

"No way! That's an actual Wiccan spell book," Thorn gasped, her eyes widening and a child-like smile spreading across her face. Thorn glanced over the yellowed text, which contained several herbal remedies. A label below the book that identified it as belonging to an Elisabeth Hadfield of Massachusetts circa 1657.

"This is amazing," Thorn said, still in disbelief.

"I wonder if she knew your ancestors," Dusk pondered as she pointed out the year and area Elisabeth was from.

_ Could she have?  _ Thorn thought, somewhat caught off guard by Dusk's idea. It wasn't too far-fetched: early Wiccans tended to work together and since her ancestors on her mother's side were active during the same time and place as Elisabeth, it was probable that they met. It was even possible she was involved with sealing away Sarah Ravencroft.

"Maybe," Thorn replied.

Thorn continued to look over the spell book, still in awe over its existence. It was part of Thorn's heritage, her identity. An actual Wiccan. Just like her.

"Huh, I didn't realize there were several different types of Wiccans," Luna stated as she read a sign titled 'Differences between Classical and Revival Wiccans.'

"Oh…well…um of course there are different varieties," Thorn said scratching the back of her neck as she quickly looked over the sign Luna was reading.

Luna chuckled. "So, which one are you?"

"Pffft. That's easy. I'm a….." Thorn paused as she glanced back at the sign for a moment, skimming it over. "A Classical Wiccan."

Luna chuckled some more before returning her attention to sign.

Thorn shrugged off Luna's teasing and pointed at the description of the Classical Wiccan.

"See, the Classical Wiccans were a non-centralized, mixed group of people who believed humans were once one with nature, but have drifted away from it and we need to return to nature. To do this, they typically practiced herbal healing, meditation, living off the land and other similar practices. Some even say they practiced nature-based magic," Thorn proudly stated before looking away from the description. She didn't need it anymore. "But the most important thing about being a Wiccan is that we try to help people and see the good in them. We don't kill or cause needless harm."

"I'd say that pretty much sums you up," Dusk added as she rejoined her friends.

Thorn smiled. "Yeah. Well, minus the living off the land part," she joked.

The three girls burst into the laughter.

"Can you imagine Thorn living in a hut in the woods," Dusk laughed.

The girls laughed even louder.

"I'll admit, I probably wouldn't last long," Thorn added with a smile.

After a couple minutes of joking at Thorn's inability to survive in the wild, the girls returned to checking out the Wiccan exhibit.

"So Revival Wicca was developed by Gerald Gardner in Britain during the 1930s and 40s before being publicly released by him and Doreen Valiente in 1954," Luna read aloud. "After that, several sects broke off from the Gardnerian Wicca, such as the Alexandrian, Blue Star, and Dianic Wiccans. The religion further evolved with the New Age Movement spurring the growth of Solo Practitioners and Eclectics."

"Hmm. Looks like he borrowed the name and restructured some beliefs from the Classical Wiccans," Thorn commented.

"Yeah though he did add a lot," Luna replied, still reading the sign. "Such as the Mother Goddess and a Great Horned God, which are the male and female personifications of nature and were worshiped by early humans for thousands of years. He also incorporated ritualistic magic, spellcasting, and witchcraft."

"Casting spells sounds pretty cool," Dusk said.

"Well, I've tried many of these spells before," Thorn noted as she looked through a list of common Revival Wiccan ceremonies and spells. "And nothing ever happened."

"Not surprising," Luna mumbled to herself, barely audible to the other two girls.

Thorn glanced at Luna who had already turned her attention to another exhibit. The black-haired girl was unsure if Luna was insulting the practices themselves or her.  _ Luna is just being her skeptical self, _ Thorn assured herself, not wanting to picture her friend talking bad about her. Thorn shook her head and pushed out the negative thought.  _ She thinks the rituals don't work and she's right _ .

Thorn snapped out of her thoughts as she noticed Dusk and Luna walking toward the stairs.

"Let's go see what this Levre guy was all about," Dusk said, waving for Thorn to follow them.

Thorn nodded and ran to her friends as they headed up the stairs.

The second floor of the museum was poorly lit and much smaller than the downstairs; there were only a couple rooms filled with items from Alexander Levre's personal life. However, one room stood out among the rest.

"This is some dark stuff," Dusk gasped as the three girls entered the room.

The room was circular with a large window directly across from the entrance being the only source of light. Along the wall were twelve paintings that depicted strange images, some of which were quite abstract. Scattered in the room where several display cases containing ancient manuscripts as well as personal letters and notes written by Alexander Levre himself.

"And I thought this place couldn't get weirder," Dusk said as she looked at several of the paintings before pointing at the largest one.

Thorn and Luna joined the blonde in examining the painting.

In the center of the painting was a crimson and golden orb tailed by an inky blackness descending onto what resembled a sheet of dark glass with shades of orange, blue and purple covered in white dots and spirals. The glass was cracked, seemingly by the orb, and bright orange flames leapt from the cracks. There was a short description beneath the painting.

_ Turning against the Aether, the Adversary rejected its place in the new cosmos, seeking to return to his eternal state. With five of his brethren, the Adversary led the Dark Ones against the Light, in an apocalyptic war across existence. But the Adversary's pride and superiority got to him, causing his Tactician to end the war. Defeated, the Adversary became the Fallen, and was locked away by the Light. From his cell, he watches and waits as mortals claw at his cage, seeking his power. For they shall set him free and he will snuff out the Light. _

"So this is the god Levre thinks the evil cult worships," Luna said reading some documents in a nearby case.

"Why would you worship a defeated god?" Thorn asked as she turned to the redhead.

Luna simply shrugged. "Levre doesn't say."

Thorn looked back at the painting.  _ Could there really be a cult trying to rule the world,  _ the Wiccan pondered, both wanting and not wanting to know the answer. Thorn shook her head and hoped that Levre was wrong.

"Hey, you two got to check out how creepy this guy is," Dusk shouted as she moved onto another painting.

Thorn and Luna headed over to her. In the center of the painting was a dark blue-gray humanoid shadow. From the center of the figure, approximately where the hands would be, hundreds of blue-gray lines shot out in every direction; the figure seemed to be pulling on them. Thorn squinted trying to get a better look at the figure, but the painting's style made it hazy, almost out-of-focus, as if the shadow was hiding from sight. Thorn shook her head and blinked several times, her inability to focus and visualize the figure caused her to look away from the painting. She shivered.  _ That's too creepy _ . She then noticed that there was a summary beneath the painting.

_ He who plots from the shadows and pulls the strings from behind the curtain, the Tactician was one of the most cunning beings in the universe. Siding with the Adversary, the Tactician worked cold and meticulously from behind the scenes, gathering information and plotting his victory. But defeat still loomed and the Adversary punished him. The Tactician, becoming the Broken, then ended the war. For his actions, the Broken was forced to roam the world, searching but never finding what was taken from him. _

While the summary identified the figure, it only raised more questions.

"I wonder what he's searching for," Thorn thought aloud.

"The war?" Dusk suggested, not really thinking it through.

"That doesn't make sense," Thorn responded, shaking her head. "Why would he search for a war?"

Dusk just shrugged.

"Hmm. Doesn't look like anyone else knows either," Luna added after reading some of the manuscripts.

Thorn couldn't help but look up at the painting one last time, the mysterious figure still difficult to see.

The girls checked out the remaining paintings of the Forgotten Gods. They learned the titles of a few more beings: The Logistician and The Devouring General who sided with the Adversary; the Supreme, who led the Light Ones against the Dark Ones, the Jailer who watched over the Fallen's prison and the Second Defender who took the place of a slain god. The other paintings were merely referred to as "horror" or "With the Aether;" none of the girls understood what any of the cryptic text and abstract images meant.

They exited the room and headed downstairs. As the girls were about to leave, Thorn noticed a brochure about paranormal investigations of the Levre House. She grabbed one and flipped through it. The museum curator, who was sitting at the desk by the entrance, smiled.

"You girls interested in the ghost hunting?" the curator asked.

Dusk and Luna looked over Thorn's shoulders to read the pamphlet.

"Sounds fun," Dusk said before whispering to Luna and Thorn. "Especially after a few drinks."

Thorn and Luna smirked.

"Yeah, we're interested," Thorn said to the curator.

"Well fortunately for you, there will be an investigation tonight. Searching for the ghost of Alexander Levre himself," the curator replied.

"That's great. How much does it cost?" Thorn asked.

"Well," the curator answered as he grabbed a nearby clipboard with some sheets of paper on it. "It's sixty dollars a person, which includes a ten dollar deposit to reserve your spot."

Luna rolled her eyes and crossed her arms, while Dusk sighed.

"Ugh, I could get wasted for half of that," Dusk complained as she walked toward the door.

"Yeah, we're better off going somewhere else," Luna commented.

Thorn lowered the brochure and sighed. As much as she wanted to join the ghost hunt, she didn't want to upset her friends. She returned the brochure to its spot.

"Thanks, but I think we'll pass," Thorn replied as she started heading out the door.

"Oh, what's the matter? Are you girls scared of a real ghost? A ghost of a man who is said to have used real magic," the curator taunted.

Thorn stopped right in her tracks. She noticed Luna glaring at her while shaking her head and mouthing the word 'no.' Thorn clenched her hands into a fist and turned to the curator. _If_ _I could beat one magical ghost, I sure as hell can deal with whatever tricks this guy has_.

"You know what," the black-haired girl said, digging into her purse, her gaze never once leaving the curator. "I think we will go on this little ghost hunt."

She whipped out a ten dollar bill and presented it to the curator, who promptly snatched it.

"Excellent," the curator said, handing Thorn some paperwork. "Just sign your first and last name here, here and here and you'll be all set."

Thorn signed the sheets with her real name, Sally McKnight, and handed the sheet back to the curator. Luna and Dusk, though disappointed, paid the deposit and signed the sheets with their names, Kimberly Moss and Jane Warren respectively.

"Alright then, the investigation starts at ten pm sharp," the curator said while counting the money.

The girls exited the museum and Luna called another cab to pick them up, as they had several hours before the investigation began.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope everyone is enjoying the story so far. 
> 
> Couple notes:
> 
> Alexander Levre is loosely based on Anton LaVey, founder of the Church of Satan, and Aleister Crowley, founder of Thelema. Both individuals' works are in the museum.
> 
> While Witch's Ghost is my favorite Scooby movie, one of my biggest criticisms of it was how Wicca was portrayed. Granted the Scooby franchise isn't known for its historical accuracy, but making Wicca into just a "good witch" was just meh. So to reconcile between canon and reality, I created two groups of Wiccans. The Revival Wicca is real life Wicca and while I did water down the belief system for narrative reasons, it's more or less true. Classical Wicca is how Witch's Ghost portrayed them (including them existing in the 1600s and it being more like a culture than a religion). It's possible the writers based this on Gardner's claims that Wicca existed for hundreds (if not thousands) of years as a Witch-Cult.
> 
> ~The Wandering Piney


	3. You're a Witch, Sally

After spending the day browsing through shops in Shardon, the girls booked a cab to the museum for the ghost hunt. It was a cool and cloudless night, with an almost-full moon illuminating the landscape. The Hex Girls exited the cab and approached the museum entrance.

"Five bucks says that the 'ghost' is just gonna be the curator in a costume," Dusk said with a hint of agitation, still upset about not finding a place to drink in town.

Thorn sighed. "Hey, this might be legit."

"It better be," Dusk replied as she crossed her arms.

"Well, looks like the curator isn't the ghost," Luna added as she pointed at the museum entrance.

The curator was facing the door and was fumbling with some keys, trying to lock the door.

"Hey, is the ghost investigation still going on?" Thorn asked the curator.

The curator gasped and dropped the keyring.

"Sorry…no…i…it's cancelled," he stuttered, bending down to pick up the keyring.

"Are you serious!? Why?" Thorn asked while crossing her arms.

"I…I'm sorry," he weekly replied.

Thorn noticed that the man was shaking and was struggling to catch his breath. His polo was slightly torn at the collar and his hair was disheveled. As he passed Thorn, she noticed that the curator had a bruised eye and there was some blood on his lip. Thorn's anger subsided when she saw this and became startled.

"Can we get our money back then?" Dusk asked, seemingly oblivious to man's condition.

The curator reached into his wallet and handed her an assortment of crumpled bills. "Now leave before…" he stopped, seemingly too scared to finish his thought, and hurried down the sidewalk.

"That was weird," Dusk commented as she counted the money. "Hey, there's forty bucks here."

"You didn't notice the man's black eye? It looks like he was in a fight," Luna told Dusk.

"Shit. Did the ghost get him," Dusk laughed.

"I don't know," Luna said while frowning at Dusk's comment. "But something bad happened to him."

"So what, should we call the police?" Dusk asked.

"I don't know. Maybe. I don't know if he called them," Luna said as she hastily looked around.

While her friends were arguing about what to do, Thorn walked over to the nearest window and peeked through it. There was just enough moonlight to see that someone had ransacked the front desk, but nothing else seemed out of place.

"That's odd," Thorn said to herself.

Thorn didn't think it was a robbery as the exhibits remained untouched and the curator still had money on him when he left.  _ This doesn't make sense, _ she thought trying to find a solution.  _ Could he have really run into a ghost? _ She paused at that thought. A part of her wanted it to be a real ghost that attacked him, as twisted as that was. It'd be the first supernatural phenomena she'd seen since Oakhaven. She was determined to find an answer.

Thorn moved away from the window and started walking along the house toward the Levre family cemetery. She stopped at a fence that wasn't much taller than her that connected to the house and encircled the cemetery; a single locked gate prevented entrance.

"Where are you going?" Luna shouted at Thorn as she and Dusk ran to her.

"I wanna know what's going on here," the black-haired girl said.

Thorn grabbed the top of the fence and pulled herself up. She struggled a bit to keep herself steady, but she managed to get one leg over, then the other, before dropping down on the other side.

"Are you crazy?!" Luna exclaimed in a more hushed tone. "You're trespassing."

Thorn brushed herself off and headed farther into the cemetery without acknowledging Luna.

"Finally something fun," Dusk cheered as she climbed over the fence almost effortlessly.

"Ugh," Luna sighed, placing her hand on her forehead in frustration. She glanced around before climbing over the fence herself.

* * *

Aside from the moonlight poking through the clouds, the cemetery was unlit. Rows of headstones, some quite weathered, stretched across the property for a few hundred feet. But dominating the landscape was a large mausoleum, the polished marbles surfaces glistened in the moonlight. Even in the distance Thorn could read the name "Levre" carved in the stone; this was the final resting place of Alexander Levre.

The girls crept along the side of the museum, Thorn leading the way.

"Where are we even going?" Luna whispered, still clearly nervous about being here.

"Shhh," Thorn hushed before she suddenly stopped, raised a hand and crouched down; Luna and Dusk followed suit.

A backdoor swung open and five individuals exited the building.

"The curator better be right about this," a male angrily said. "I'm not happy we let him get away."

"Oh don't worry, this is it," a female assured the first individual.

In the moonlight, the girls caught a better glimpse of mysterious people as they crossed an empty field between the graves and the museum: The three people who didn't speak all wore dark hooded robes that went down to their knees, with a few streaks of gold that reflected in the moonlight. The girls noticed a brief shimmer of light on their faces, suggesting that they were wearing masks. The two individuals who spoke were dressed a bit differently; they wore sleeveless caped overcoats over a dark long-sleeved vest along with dark pants, boots and gloves. They also seemed to be wearing masks as their faces also shone in the moonlight. Additionally, the woman wore a black, pointed hat with a round base.

The two individuals who spoke stepped ahead of the others and they seemed to be in charge. The group headed toward the mausoleum, unaware of the girls hiding in the shadows.

"Okay Thorn, I think it's time we headed back," Luna whispered.

"Not yet," Thorn replied.

Thorn moved to the corner of the building and glanced around to see if anyone else was coming. With the coast clear, she darted across the open patch of grass to a row of large headstones and crouched behind one. She checked to see how far away the hooded people were and seeing that she was still out-of-sight, moved to a closer headstone.

"Hehe, this is fun," Dusk laughed as she followed Thorn's path.

"Wait! Don't g…" Luna stopped as Dusk ran off.

"Why do I even bother?" Luna sighed. She quickly followed her friends toward uncertainty.

* * *

After several minutes of darting between headstones and shadows, the girls hid behind a rather large grave about thirty feet from the mausoleum where the robed people stood, just close enough to overhear them.

"Sir, we have confirmed that there are no conventional entrances into the mausoleum," one of the robed individuals said to the male leader.

The male leader turned to the female leader, who had started examining the mausoleum.

"Matella-," the male leader said to her.

"I'm already on it," Matella replied, cutting him off.

The woman walked alongside the mausoleum, running her hand across the marble wall. She paused at one spot.

"Found it," she said, still facing the wall.

Matella held her hand over the spot like she was grabbing something. Her hand and the spot both glowed blue while a glowing triangle with a series of lines crossing it materialized between them. She rotated her hand and the triangle turned downwards. She then swiped her hand over the wall and the wall slid open.

"Gentlemen," Matella said, motioning for the others to enter.

The masked men entered the mausoleum, two of them turning on flashlights. After the men disappeared into the darkness, Matella entered herself. Once inside, she turned around and resealed the mausoleum in a similar sweeping motion.

* * *

"That was awesome!" Dusk shouted amazement, not caring if the masked people heard. "But what was that?"

Thorn excitedly smiled and ran to the mausoleum. Her friends followed her over.

Luna patted over the spot where the woman was previously standing.

"There's nothing here! No seams, crevices, buttons. Nothing but solid marble," Luna said shaking her head in disbelief.

"That, that had to be magic," Thorn said with a childish smile on her face. Granted, opening a door wasn't how she thought she'd rediscover it, but she was certain this was the magic she sought after for years.

"Not necessarily," Luna added, though she sounded unsure of herself.

Dusk waved her hand over the spot where the woman's hand was glowing in a vain attempt to get something to happen.

"Thorn, you should give it a try. You're a Wiccan after all," Dusk suggested.

"Why not," Thorn said blushing.

She made her way to the spot and raised her hand to the marble. Nothing. She tried waving her hand and nothing happened. Thorn's smile diminished, her body slouched and she lowered her arm.  _ Figures _ she thought as she stared at the ground.

"You got to pretend you're holding something. That's what that lady did," Dusk said trying to reassure her friend.

"Try picturing a door knob," Luna suggested.

Thorn sighed.  _ What else could I possibly lose _ ?

Thorn looked back at the marble and clenched her fingers around an imaginary doorknob. She turned to her friends as nothing immediately happened.

"Nothing," Thorn stated with a frown.

But her friends' eyes widened and their jaws dropped.

"Umm…your…" Luna tried to say as she pointed at Thorn's hand.

Thorn raised an eyebrow and looked back at the marble and her hand.

"EEK! My hand is glowing!" Thorn shrieked in both fear and excitement as a downward facing triangle with lines running through it manifested between her hand and the glowing spot on the marble.

"What do I do?! What do I do!?" Thorn squealed as she flailed her arm in the air, only somewhat aware that the marble wall slid open and closed in conjunction with her arm's movement.

Luna and Dusk could only stare in shock, unable to speak.

"Make a fist and quickly open it. You'll release the seal," a woman's voice ordered from inside the mausoleum.

Without hesitating, Thorn closed and opened her hand. The triangle dissipated and the glow faded away. Thorn sighed, but as she looked up she saw that the door was open and the five masked individuals were looking right at her and her friends.

"Terminate the witch," the male leader commanded in a cold and calm manner.

The two robed individuals by the entrance reached to their sides and retrieved what Thorn quickly realized were pistols. Everything seemed to freeze; Thorn couldn't move, she couldn't think. Her heart raced and she struggled to breathe.

"No, no, no. Don't you two do anything," Matella yelled at the two armed men.

They obeyed and holstered their weapons.

"Matella…" the male leader said in annoyance as he approached her.

"Let me handle this Cyrus," Matella responded.

"I'm not wasting our time with this witch," Cyrus stated.

Matella turned to Cyrus and she started whispering to him. "She could be useful to us. She did open a Class Three seal just by watching me…"

The rest of the conversation became too quiet for Thorn to hear, but both masked individuals stopped and momentarily stared at her.

"Fine. You're responsible for her," Cyrus concluded before he and other robed men walked over to a large coffin situated in the center of the mausoleum.

Matella turned to the startled girls and walked to Thorn.

"I'm so sorry for my partner's behavior. He's been under a lot of stress lately," Matella said, her tone more cheerful and friendly. "To properly introduce myself, my name is Matella."

Thorn and her friends just continued to stare at the masked woman.

Matella chuckled. She removed her gold and crimson mask, revealing herself as a woman likely in her thirties with blue eyes and brown hair. She had a friendly smile across her face.

"So what are your names?" the woman asked.

"Um," Thorn gulped. "I'm Thorn…and this is Dusk and Luna."

"Uh, hi," Dusk nervously added.

Matella chuckled. "That's cute, you all have little nicknames, but what are your actual names?"

Thorn grimaced. "And your real name is Matella?"

"It legally is," the strange woman replied.

Thorn sighed. "Sally," she reluctantly said.

Matella looked at Dusk and Luna.

"Kimberly," Luna said under her breath.

"Jane," Dusk groaned.

Matella kept smiling. "Much better," she said before turning her attention on Thorn.

"So Sally, that Class Three seal you opened back there was some pretty impressive spell work. I mean, to get past that kind of enchantment is quite an accomplishment," Matella said.

Thorn just looked blankly at her, entirely caught off guard by the question and she didn't know how to respond.

Matella chuckled some more. "You have no idea what I'm talking about, do you?"

Thorn shook her head. "Magic?" she replied, unsure of herself.

"Oh you poor girl," Matella said while shaking her head. "Alright then. Back to the basics. So, um, congratulations you're a witch, just like me."

"I'm not a witch," Thorn replied, slightly raising her voice. "I'm one-sixteenth Wiccan on my mother's side and I practice Classical Wicca."

Matella burst into laughter. Thorn glanced at her friends, but they just shrugged, before turning back to the woman.

"Hahaha! Oh, that's a good one. One-sixteenth Wiccan. Haha. And I'm one-fourth Catholic. Ha," Matella laughed while wiping a tear from her eye.

"What's so funny about that?" Thorn demanded as she took a step closer to Matella; she didn't realize her fists were clenched.

"Oh, you're serious," Matella said she regained her composure. "First of all, that's not how religions work. Second, beliefs have nothing to do with someone being a witch or warlock."

This sudden revelation caught Thorn off guard.  _ Could I actually be a wit…? _ Thorn quickly stopped that train of thought.  _ No. Wiccans are not witches _ . Despite this, the possibility still lurked in her mind and Thorn craved for an answer.

"What do you mean?" she nervously asked.

Matella regained her more professional tone before answering.

"It's quite simple: witches and warlocks are, respectively, any woman or man who can use magic; mages for magical people in general. Personal beliefs, ideologies and cultural backgrounds have absolutely no role in this," Matella reiterated.

Thorn didn't know how to respond to that emotional sucker punch. She tried to speak, but was dumbstruck. Though she always hoped to find real magic again, the reality of her situation was much different. She was confused and shocked as everything she thought she knew about herself and her faith was flipped on its head. Wiccans were supposed to be good people that helped others, while witches were evil monsters that hurt and killed people. Sarah and Ben were monsters. Her Wiccan ancestors weren't. She wasn't.

Thorn vividly recalled the moment she reunited with her father after the Ravencrofts were defeated. He called her a witch. She remembered her response:  _ A Wiccan, daddy. A Wiccan. _ She was so proud then. But now, that pride was gone, replaced with confusion and frustration. She didn't want to think about it anymore.

Yet questions flooded her mind.  _ Why me? Why couldn't I use magic before now? Was my Wiccan heritage really responsible for sealing away Sarah Ravencroft?  _ Thorn shuddered at that last thought, as that moment was what affirmed her Wiccan beliefs. If it was the case, it would, in her mind, render her faith irrelevant.

Thorn closed her eyes and shook her head, breaking her out of her thoughts. She took a deep breath and regained some of her composure.

"So I'm a…" she stopped herself from completing the thought. "No."

Matella frowned and rolled her eyes. "Here we go again…"

Thorn shook her head and backed away from Matella as she moved closer to her friends.

"That's heavy…to realize you're an actual witch after all this time," Dusk commented in a fascinated tone.

Thorn glared at Dusk and moved away from her. "No. That's not what's going on. Don't even mention it."

"But why her?" Luna asked, concerned for her friend. Thorn glanced at Luna. That was one of the questions she was too afraid to ask.

Matella shrugged. "No idea." She turned to Thorn. "You said that you have ancestors who were Classical Wiccans. They were known to include mages in their groups, so it's possible you had an ancestor who was a witch or warlock. Magic sometimes gets passed down through families."

That was a little more comforting, but it didn't guarantee anything and it still conflicted with her beliefs.

"No, I can't be a witch," Thorn stammered. "I'm a Wiccan."

She wanted the conversation to end and, fortunately for the bewildered girl, the sound of something metal crashing onto the marble floor inside the mausoleum brought relief to the confused girl. The four of them turned their attention to the mausoleum.

"It's about time you got that casket open," Matella exclaimed, turning to Cyrus. "Did you get what we came here for?"

"Our objective here is complete," Cyrus said emerging from the shadows with the rest of the masked people.

Thorn noticed that he was holding a single sheet of parchment covered in a nonsensical script resembling that didn't resemble any written language. He quickly folded the parchment and placed it in his pocket. But as Cyrus exited the mausoleum, there was a bright flash of blue light followed by a sonic boom. He stopped moving and raised his hand.

"Set a line," Cyrus ordered with a clear sense of urgency in his voice.

Two of the masked men removed a small canister from their robes and began pouring out a white, crystalline powder that faintly flowed red; they ran in opposite directions away from the group leaving a trail of the substance behind and circled the mausoleum. Cyrus and the other man removed from their belt what looked like a cattle prod with a cord that was attached to a small mechanical device on their belts. They turned a dial and the device emitted an electrical hum; Thorn felt the air become static around them.

As this happened, a strong gust of wind swept through the cemetery swirling around the group and howling through the rows of headstones. The moonlight then dimmed before disappearing completely. Alarmed, Thorn, Luna and Dusk looked up at the sky and saw a dark cloud enveloping the area; the clouds twisted and turned into a dark spiral directly above the mausoleum.

"Hmm, looks like we'll have company," Matella said as she put on her mask.

Thorn trembled as her moment of relief came to an end.


	4. We Got a Ghost Problem

Thorn trembled at the sight before her; she became short of breath and her heart raced.  _ This can't be happening. Not again  _ she thought as her mind brought forth images of Ben Ravencroft summoning Sarah. She could almost see the witch's face in the clouds and hear her cackling in the wind.

The wind grew stronger, causing the girls to raise their arms to block the dust the gusts picked up. Over the mausoleum, the vortex morphed into a miniature tornado-like structure, though Thorn could've swore that the tornado was taking on a human shape. A blue bolt of lightning shot from the clouds and struck the "tornado", creating a sonic boom and a flash of light that momentarily blinded the group.

After a few moments, Thorn regained her sight. The wind and clouds had dispersed, but atop the mausoleum was a glowing man in his fifties or sixties. His skin was unnaturally white and his hair, which consisted solely of a sharp goatee, was the same color as his skin while his eyes were black with pink sclerae. His clothes were all dark gray and consisted of a jacket, shirt, pants and shoes. The man slowly rose into the air and he looked down at the crowd before him.

Thorn gasped, covering her mouth with her hands, as she saw the man in the air; his ghastly appearance triggering more flashbacks to Sarah.

"Ahh Alexander, what an unexpected surprise," Matella said. "I see death hasn't been too kind to you."

"So this day has finally arrived," Levre said, his voice somber.

"It has indeed," Matella calmly replied. "Despite your efforts, this was inevitable."

"Wait! Is that Alexander Levre?" Luna gasped.

Thorn instantly regretted wanting to find a ghost.  _ Please be a fake. _ But the Wiccan knew this was too similar to Sarah to be a hoax.

The ghost turned toward the Hex Girls and sighed before returning his attention back to the masked people.

"Contracting out work I see, didn't think the Order would stoop so low," Alexander sighed.

"We're not actually with them and we have no idea who they are," Thorn tried to explain as she and her friends started to slowly back away from the phantom.

The ghost glanced at Thorn. "I'm sorry, but I can't take the risk that you're lying."

Before she could respond, Cyrus stepped forward and pointed the prod at the ghost. Unexpectedly, the ghost shouted and recoiled in pain.

"I've had enough of you traitor," Cyrus shouted. "Annihilating you will be justice for the damage you caused us!"

Alexander Levre floated out of range of the device and sighed. "Very well. I will do what I must to stop you."

Fire erupted from the ghost's hand and with a wave of an arm, he hurled a stream of flames at the people below him. Too terrified and shocked to run, Thorn closed her eyes and braced herself, fully expecting death or serious injury. But after a few seconds, she opened her eyes, still very much alive.

"How are we not dead?" Thorn asked in surprise while Dusk and Luna had similarly confused expressions on their faces.

"Oh Sally, you should always be prepared for combat," Matella replied with a slight chuckle. "I have several tricks to beat this dead warlock."

Thorn saw that Matella had her hand raised and her palm facing Alexander. To Thorn's surprise, Matella's hand glowed light green and the entire group was surrounded by a wall of light green energy, blocking the ghost's attack. Matella thrusted her hand forward and the green wall flew toward the ghost. The ghost raised his arms to hold back the energy wall, but with great force, the ghost was pushed into an invisible barrier where the circle of powder was laid.

"That's sick," Dusk exclaimed.

"Oh, it's about to get even better," Matella replied.

Alexander Levre regained his composure and moved away from the barrier. Grunting, his hands became engulfed in dark red lights. Thorn's eyes widened as he fired a red beam of energy. Thorn only briefly saw the beams go right through the front of the mausoleum, shattering it, before impacting the ground at the center of the ground in a blinding light.

Thorn could not hear or see anything; all she felt was an intense heat hotter than anything she felt before sweep across her for a fraction of a second and a massive blunt force smack against her body that stopped as quickly as it began. Her vision became blurry and she could only hear ringing for several seconds.

* * *

"What the hell…" Thorn groaned as she realized that she was lying face-first on the ground, dazed and dizzy from whatever just happened. She pushed herself up from the ground and, after a few moments her vision began to clear and her hearing slowly returned to normal. She noticed that she was easily fifteen from the mausoleum remains.

"First explosion huh?" Matella said as she dissipated a green energy shield in front of her. She was standing a few feet from Thorn.

_ There was an explosion!?  _ Thorn panicked as she glanced down at herself; she was covered in soot and dirt and her clothes were pretty much ruined. She checked herself over, and aside from being dirtied, seemed fine.

"Ohhh," Thorn groaned as she stood up; evidently she wasn't as fine as she thought as her entire body ached.

Matella smirked. "Try casting a barrier next time."

"Note taken," Thorn replied, rubbing her head. She noticed several of the masked people scattered around, seemingly knocked out, or at least she hoped they were knocked out. "Why didn't you protect all of us?"

"A barrier large enough to cover eight people wouldn't last against that kind of spell without me using too much magic," Matella explained in disappointment. "But the mausoleum took the brunt of the force, so we got lucky there."

Thorn shuddered. She was only alive because the ghost had bad aim and hit the mausoleum. She looked at the ghost's former resting place; there were only a few smoldering stacks of marble left. She shuddered again.  _ Dusk! Luna! _

In a panic, Thorn looked around for her friends. She spotted them near the edge of the circle about thirty feet from her. Her heart was racing when she didn't see them move. But after a moment, she sighed with relief as she watched them scramble to their feet, run out of the circle and hide behind some tombstones.

"Sally move!"

Thorn was barely able to turn toward Matella when she felt a slight tug and was pulled backwards. Immediately, the spot where she previously stood was struck by a bolt of green energy that left the ground scorched.

"What the hell," Thorn gasped. She turned and panicked as she saw the ghost flying toward her, his hands engulfed in green energy. She was frozen in fear, memories of Sarah Ravencroft charging her to get the book. But this time, she had no book to stop the ghost.

But as the ghost neared, he slowed and narrowly avoided a blue fireball-like projectile that whizzed past him. Like the ghost, Thorn turned to the source of the projectile. She saw Matella and noticed that her hands were engulfed in a dark blue light. The witch proceeded to hurl another fireball at the ghost. But the ghost was quick and was able to dodge Matella's attacks. In retaliation, he fired a bolt of green energy at the witch.

Thorn gasped as Matella effortlessly leapt through the air and landed gracefully on a tombstone easily twenty feet away. The ghost got angrier and fired another bolt of green energy at Matella, but the witch simply jumped to another tombstone as the one she was standing on exploded; she threw a couple blue fireballs at Alexander and he dodged them.

Thorn shook her head in bewilderment and terror. "This is insane." She turned around and ran away. Away from the ghost. Away from the witch. Away from the madness. But before she could cross the powdered line, a set of rust-colored spikes, about as tall as her, shot up from the ground and blocked her path.

"What!?" Thorn shrieked as she tried going around the spikes but more rose from the earth, preventing her from leaving.

"Don't think I forgot about you," the phantom warlock snarled from the distance.

Thorn watched in fear as the spikes curved toward her. Thorn shrieked as she barely sidestepped one of the spikes trying to stab her. But as the first spike withdrew, Thorn gasped as she felt a sharp, piercing pain on her side. She stumbled backwards and fell down as she watched a second spike withdraw back into the ground.

Shuddering and gasping for breath, Thorn sat up and checked her side. There was a cut, not as deep as she thought it was, but it was still slightly bleeding. Before she could treat the minor wound, Thorn felt the ground beneath her tremble.

"Shit!" Thorn shouted as she scurried out of the way of another spike. She scrambled to her feet and ran but more spikes tore through the earth in her wake. No matter how fast she ran, the spikes were always a footstep behind her.

"Someone help! Agh!" Thorn tripped over a piece of debris from the mausoleum and fell. On queue, the spikes emerged from the ground, curved and went to strike the terrified Wiccan.

Ka-Boom!

There was a large explosion and as the spike came down upon her, a green barrier formed between her and spike, preventing the spike from impaling her.

"How?" Thorn asked herself. There was a loud whoosh followed by Matella landing next to her. "Oh thanks."

Matella nodded, she looked exhausted. "I've incapacitated Alexander, but only momentarily." She glanced at the spikes and with a wave of her hand, they disintegrated into nothing. "Where'd it hit you?"

"My side," Thorn answered. "It's not that bad." She showed Matella the wound.

"Damn it," the witch said. "Hold still, this will hurt."

Matella raised her hand over the wound and Thorn screamed as something moved in the wound. After a moment, a small shard of blood-covered metal pulled from Thorn's cut; the shard floated above the palm of Matella's hand.

"What is that!?" Thorn exclaimed, horrified that that thing was in her. "Do I need a tetanus shot or something!?"

"No," Matella calmly replied. "It's a type of tracking spell, as long as that metal was in you, those spikes would've followed you until they killed you." The shard cracked and disintegrated. "With that, I'm gonna need some help with defeating Alexander."

"I already told you I'm not a witch!" Thorn shouted as she got back up. "I can't jump through the air or shoot lasers; I can't help you!"

"You were able to open the seal, so you're damned witch whether you like it or not," Matella said, her tone was harsh, almost condescending.

Thorn shook her head. She wanted to find Dusk and Luna and then get hell out of there. But that wouldn't happen. Thorn heard clapping and turned to see the ghost floating toward her and Matella.

"I didn't see that one coming," the ghost said in reference to some spell that Thorn missed. "But that got me curious, why are you protecting this witch. She's clearly incompetent and a burden."

Thorn sighed and hung her head low when she realized that the ghost was talking about her.  _ He's not wrong. _

"That's none of your concern," Matella replied.

"You can't possibly care about her." The deceased warlock paused and smirked. "Ah, I see. You're u-". A green barrier formed around the phantom as Matella fired another blue fireball at him.

"No matter," the ghost said as the shield dissipated and he descended closer to the ground. He raised his hands and a dozen tombstones began to violently shake. To Thorn's shock, the shaking tombstones were ripped from the ground and circled Alexander. He pointed at Matella and Thorn and several of them hurled themselves at the two women.

Matella was able to destroy a few of the incoming projectiles with the blue energy blasts.

"Thorn move!" Matella shouted as she dove out of the way from a tombstone.

"Oh shit!" Thorn yelled as she jumped out the way of a tombstone that smashed into the ground right where she had just been standing.

The young Wiccan frantically jumped out of the way of two more tombstones before tripping over herself. She fell to the ground but rolled sideways and avoided a third tombstone that had impaled itself into the ground just inches from her. But as she faced the sky, her eyes widened in fear as she saw another incoming tombstone as she had rolled right into the projectile's trajectory.  _ I'm dead _ , she thought as she closed her eyes and covered her face with her arms.

Boom!

Thorn opened her eyes to see that the tombstone had been pulverized in the air. A blue energy blast destroyed a second tombstone coming at Thorn.

"Thank you," the Wiccan gasped; Matella just nodded in response.

"You know," the warlock's ghost said. "I was expecting much more from the Order; only two witches, and one completely useless."

The phantom's insult hit Thorn's psyche deep;  _ He's right, I can't do shit against him.  _ She glanced toward the tombstone Dusk and Luna were hiding behind. She saw some movement behind the stone. She teared up as she realized that she had put her best friends in mortal danger and there wasn't anything she could do to protect them.

"Sally, don't listen to him," Matella said. "I need you to focus here. Your friends need you to focus."

Thorn wiped her eyes. Matella was right, she needed to put aside her fear and anxiety. Though how she could help was still in question.

Alexander descended closer to the ground and the floating tombstones followed him, ready to strike at the two women. But looking past him, Thorn noticed movement behind the specter. For the first time, she felt relief.

"Hey you undead freak, we're not the ones you should be worried about," Thorn remarked to the ghost.

The phantom paused, stunned by the black-haired girl's sudden confidence, though not as surprised as Thorn was.

"What do…ahhhh," the ghost shrieked in pain as Cyrus charged at the ghost, nearly hitting him with the prod.

Alexander winced in agony and tried to flee, but two other masked men blocked the ghost from getting away with their prods. The ghost screamed and shook while the remaining tombstones flew off in random directions and into the ground in a vain attempt to kill his attackers.

"Matella strike him down!" Cyrus barked.

Matella raised her hand and it was engulfed in a dark red light.

_ It's going to be over soon,  _ Thorn thought as she realized what Matella was about to do.

But Alexander also realized what was about to happen. Glaring at his attackers, he made an "X" with arms and he began to glow dark yellow.

"No!" the warlock shouted as he swiped his arms and released a burst of energy that pushed away the masked men and knocked out the two nameless ones.

The blastwave was strong enough to make Thorn and Matella lose their balance and Matella's attack missed Alexander; the beam destroyed much of the cemetery behind the ghost. The warlock raised both his hands. They were engulfed in red light and fired two beams at Matella and Thorn.

"Behind me, now!" Matella shouted at Thorn.

The Wiccan did as told and Matella generated a shield around them. The beams collided with the shield, causing bright flashes of light and the barrier shook.

"I can't hold this alone forever," Matella stated through gritted teeth. "I need you to help me support this shield or we're both dead."

Thorn shuddered.

"But I don't know how," she weakly replied.

Matella grunted and fell to her knees, the strain of Alexander's attack becoming too much to bear.

"Clear your thoughts and picture the barrier in your mind," Matella began between short gasps of breath. "Raise your hand to help you focus and will it into existence."

"But how d…" Thorn stuttered.

"Just do it!" Matella yelled in pain, cutting Thorn off.

_ That doesn't make sense _ Thorn thought as she noticed cracks appearing in the shield. In desperation, Thorn closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She could picture a second shield forming under the cracked one. Thorn raised her hand just as Matella was doing.

"Work. I need this to work," Thorn muttered, not knowing what would happen.

After a few moments, she opened her eyes and gasped with excitement and surprise as she saw her hand glowing green. A second green shield formed underneath the nearly destroyed first one.

"I did it," Thorn said, half-smiling in newfound confidence.

"Good, brace yourself" Matella mumbled before collapsing from exhaustion, her heavy breathing indicating that she was still alive.

"Matella," Thorn gasped.

Matella's shield immediately shattered and the beams hit Thorn's. Despite not physically hitting her, Thorn felt a powerful force overcome her; it was as if she took a strong punch to the stomach and the blow winded her. Thorn fell to her knees just as Matella had and saw cracks form in the shield.  _ No. Please no _ . Her heart was racing and she was having problems catching her breath. She trembled on the ground and a few tears trickled down her cheek.

"Not like this," Thorn cried.

* * *

Dusk could only watch her friend hold out against the ghost.  _ We're abandoning her again. _ She hated herself for it. It was just like in Oakhaven with the Ravencrofts. When she got the chance, she and Luna fled, leaving Thorn behind with the Scooby gang to deal with the ghost. Now history was repeating but this time, they left Thorn behind with a deadly phantom and people who tried to kill her.

"Luna, she can't take anymore," Dusk voiced her concern over her friends' situation. "We need to do something. We can't leave her like last time."

"What can we possibly do?" Luna shouted, her usual collected demeanor replaced by sheer terror. "We have no magic, no weapons. Nothing. And even if we did, we have no idea how to defeat a ghost."

As much as Dusk didn't want to admit it, Luna was right, they had no idea what to do. But that wasn't going to stop her from the trying.

The blonde looked around the area.  _ There's got to be something we could do _ . She then caught sight of a few objects a short distance away.

"Aha," Dusk exclaimed as she rushed over to a nearby grave.

She picked up two baseball-sized chunks of marble from the destroyed mausoleum.

"What do you expect to do with those?" Luna asked.

"Help Thorn or die trying," Dusk said sprinting toward the ghost.

"You're insane!" Luna shouted.

"Yep," Dusk replied unaware that Luna was following her.

Dusk ran to the ghost, crossing the powdered line that encircled the fight.  _ I'm coming Thorn _ .

"Hey asshole, get away from her!" Dusk shouted as she chucked one of the marble pieces at the phantom.

The marble hit Alexander's back with a thud. He stopped firing the energy beams and turned to Dusk. Dusk threw the second chunk but Alexander's appearance changed; he became hazy and transparent like a fine mist and the marble went through him, causing no harm. He then returned to his original state.

"What did you expect to accomplish with that," Alexander said, more annoyed than anything else.

Dusk shrugged.

"You're not attacking my friend," Dusk said, crossing her arms. She wanted to look tough in front of the phantom, so she blurted out the first 'tough' sounding phrase that came to mind. "Now go screw yourself!"

Alexander clenched his fists and his face contorted in anger.

"You're pissing me off," the ghost growled.

"Good," she responded with a smirk, not caring if that was a stupid thing to do. It just sounded cool.

At this point Luna caught up with her.

"Time to go," Luna snapped.

The redhead grabbed Dusk's arm and started pulling her back to their hiding spot. Dusk stuck up her middle finger to the warlock as she was dragged away from him.

"Don't you think about leaving," the phantom said, his hand engulfed in flames.

He shot a blast of fire and created a wall of flames that blocked their escape. He then raised his hand and acted like he was grabbing them.

Dusk suddenly couldn't move and felt like something had grabbed ahold of her entire body.  _ Okay, this isn't good _ . Her eyes widened in panic as she felt the ground disappear beneath her feet and she realized she was floating. She glanced at Luna and saw that she was also in the air, screaming and struggling to free herself. Alexander then floated toward the hapless girls.

"You've got quite the attitude young lady," Alexander said. "I think you need to learn some manners."

He clenched his fists tighter and Dusk felt a constricting force all over her body. She grunted and gritted her teeth as she tried not to scream, lest she show a sign of weakness to the phantom.  _ You've endured worse _ Dusk reassured herself, yet her face reddened and her breaths became short and quick.

"Not so tough now are you?" the ghost mocked.

Dusk's fear began to overcome her as the force constricting her grew tighter and tighter.

* * *

As soon as the ghost's attack stopped, Thorn's shield dissipated. Thorn, still on her knees, panted and she heard her racing heartbeat. She stared at the ground, too tired to even raise her head.  _ I shouldn't have brought us here _ Thorn regretted. She struggled to her feet and assessed her situation. Matella was still out cold but the ghost had moved farther to her left, past the mausoleum. Something had caught his attention and Thorn looked at where he was facing.

"No," she grunted when she saw Luna and Dusk in the air, their legs kicking at nothing and Luna's screams becoming muffled.

Adrenaline rushing through her, Thorn ran toward her friends and, unbeknownst to the Wiccan, her hand was engulfed in a dark blue light.

"No!" she shouted louder and angrier than before.

Not thinking, or even being aware of what she was doing, Thorn hurled a dark blue orb of energy from her glowing hand. The orb whizzed through the air before colliding with Alexander in a thunderous explosion.

"Agh!" the warlock shouted while crashing to ground; Luna and Dusk, freed from the ghost's grasp, landed on the ground, gasping for air but otherwise unharmed.

Thorn recoiled a bit at the sight of the ghost falling to the earth.  _ Did I just do that? _ She looked down at her still shaking hand and the blue glow slowly faded away. She looked at the grounded spirit. She didn't feel afraid anymore; ghosts could be hurt.

"Good shot," groaned a voice from behind her.

Thorn turned around to see Matella pick herself up.

"I…I saved them," Thorn replied both surprised at herself and relieved for her friends, as they had distanced themselves from the downed phantom.

"Ugh, that one hurt," the ghost growled as he got up from the ground. "I'll admit, I guess you're not entirely useless."

He rose back into the air and he pointed at Thorn.

"What!?" Thorn muttered as she felt an unseen force lift her into the air, holding her in place.

"But you're nothing I can't deal with," Alexander stated while flicking his wrist.

Thorn felt a forceful tug and was hurled through the air.

"Aah" Thorn shrieked as she collided with a tombstone.

Thorn tried to get up but she winced as she felt a sharp pain on her thigh.

"Crap, that's going to leave a nasty bruise," she said, rubbing the sore spot, yet thankful that she had no other injuries.

She powered through the pain and managed to get up, though she was weakened by her injury.

"Sally, I think it's about time we ended this fight," Matella said as her hand glowed blue.

The older witch began hurling orbs of magic at the ghost, who generated a barrier around him to protect himself from the blasts. The ghost suddenly cried in pain as Cyrus and the third masked man came at the phantom with the prods. However, the two masked men each removed a small container and began encircling Alexander with the crystalline powder.

"I don't think so," the ghost grunted waving his hand.

The two men were sent flying and dropped the canisters, leaving the circle incomplete in two spots; the circle itself seemed unaffected by Alexander's actions. Matella continued to blast him with magic, preventing him from leaving.

* * *

_ They're trying to trap him,  _ Luna realized.

This was the first moment where Luna actually thought they could survive this ordeal.

"Dusk, we need to close that circle," the redhead stated.

"How?" Dusk asked.

"Alexander never left the giant circle those guys made," Luna explained. "I don't think he can leave as he hit a barrier when he was blasted into the circle."

"So then we have to run back to the ghost," Dusk said rubbing her hands together and grinning deviously.

"I…I guess so," Luna sighed.

"Then it's payback time for almost killing us," Dusk responded.

Luna gulped. It was a risky move but it had to be done.

The two girls sprinted toward the phantom and went straight to the dropped canisters all while avoiding the constant stream of small explosions. Luna dove beneath the magical projectiles and grabbed the canister. Unfortunately, she had landed in Alexander's line of sight; the ghost glared down at her with eyes filled with anger and— surprisingly— desperation.

"Shit," Luna muttered as she swung the canister in the air with haste, releasing a cloud of glowing powder and closing the front of the circle.

There was a sudden blast of energy that knocked the canister out of her hands and pushed her away from the circle.

"No," the ghost stammered with a hint of fear in his voice.

He attempted to back away but collided with an unseen barrier; Dusk had managed to close her part of the circle.

"Pheww," Luna sighed with relief.

* * *

"No!" the ghost shouted, throwing himself against the circle in a vain attempt to escape.

He became panicked, desperate and afraid as his barrier dissipated. He was like a trapped animal lashing out against his captors yet unable to harm them. Matella stopped firing at him but he didn't stop thrashing about. Thorn, Dusk, Luna, Cyrus, Matella and the other masked men approached the doomed ghost.

"No! No! You cannot take that parchment," the warlock screamed, almost begging them not to.

"It's over Levre. We've got what we came here for and now we can finally end your pitiful existence once and for all," Cyrus said.

The masked man nodded to Matella.

"About time I got to do some serious magic," Matella said emphasizing the 'serious'.

"Wait, that fight wasn't serious enough for you?" Thorn asked.

Matella chuckled and raised her hand over the defeated ghost.

"Restless spirit who haunts the night, no more shall you cause strife. It's time for you to face the light, for I rid you from the world of life!" Matella shouted.

Thorn gasped in shock as Alexander screamed in fear and agony. His feet erupted into a bright, white fire. The blaze consumed his legs and spread up his body. In one final action, he made eye contact with Thorn.

"You cannot trust them," Alexander cried. "They must never be allowed to raise the Fa…AGHHHHHH!"

The fire consumed the entirety of the ghost. He screamed one last ghastly cry before snuffing out into nothing.

"Is… is that it?" Thorn nervously asked.

"Yes," Matella replied with an exhausted sigh. "He is gone forever."

Thorn stared at the empty circle. Despite the ghost's destruction, Thorn didn't feel relief. Questions lingered in her mind about herself and, worryingly, about the ghost's final plea.


	5. Where's the Silver Lining?

As she stared at the empty circle, the ghost's final words echoed in her head. _ You cannot trust them. _ She looked at the masked people. Despite protecting Thorn and her friends from Alexander Levre, neither Cyrus nor Matella explained why they were looking for that piece of parchment, what group they were part of and even why they were dressed the way they were. This, coupled with Alexander's initial remarks and the fact that they nearly shot them, troubled her.

_ They're not telling us everything _ . Thorn wanted more answers—both about the group and herself—but she needed to be careful about how she asked them.

"Thanks for saving us," Thorn said.

"Oh please, we're the ones who should be thanking you," Matella replied. "If you three weren't here, we would've failed our mission."

"Hmm. So what's so important about a piece of paper anyways?" Thorn asked as nonchalantly as possible.

"It's nothing important, just some minor work," Matella quickly said.

Thorn raised an eyebrow. "But clearly it's important enough to risk dying over," she asserted.

Cyrus moved closer to Thorn with crossed arms, but Matella moved in front of him with a raised hand.

"Sally, it really isn't your concern," Matella belittled.

"It's Thorn. And I think we should get to know as we helped you get it," Thorn retorted.

"Such an appropriate name," Cyrus muttered from behind the witch as if he was speaking through clenched teeth.

Thorn caught a glance from Luna; the redhead's expression begging Thorn to stop prying for information, but Thorn wasn't done with the masked people.

"Well then, Thorn," Matella began, her tone becoming both annoyed yet strangely intrigued, as if she was impressed by Thorn's stubbornness. "Now isn't the time for answers."

Thorn looked into the distance and she heard the wailing of sirens grow in intensity as they approached the cemetery. With so much going on, Thorn didn't consider that the explosions would be heard in town.

"Of course," Thorn muttered under her breath, rolling her eyes in the process.

Cyrus placed a finger to his ear. "Bring the van around," he ordered, clearly speaking into an earpiece.

A few moments later, a white van screeched to a halt in front of the cemetery. The side door slid open revealing another masked person. Cyrus and the three nameless people ran toward the fence.

"I'd suggest you three follow us," Matella said as she ran to the fence with the other masked individuals. The witch raised her hand to the fence causing several posts to bend outward creating an opening.

"I agree, I'm not explaining this to the cops," Dusk remarked and she too took off toward the hole in the fence.

Luna and Thorn shot concerned glances at each other but after glancing over the ruined cemetery, ran after their friend. After a brief sprint, the three girls caught up to the masked people. Unfortunately, Matella was in the process of closing the door.

"They're leaving us!" Dusk shouted.

"You can't just abandon us after we helped you!" Thorn hollered at Matella with a raised fist.

Matella paused, leaving the door half open. She sighed and fully opened the door.

"Very true," she said almost cheerfully. "But no talking after you tell us where to drop you off."

Cyrus grunted but didn't stop the girls from entering, much to Thorn's surprise.

Thorn was aware of how dangerous it was to get in the van, but these people had the answers to so many questions and she didn't think Matella would let anything bad happen to her, Dusk and Luna. Plus, trying to explain the destruction of a historical cemetery through magic, witches and ghosts without the masked people to the police probably wouldn't end well; the potential charges they faced could hinder their musical careers.

The girls sat down and after telling Matella where their hotel was, remained silent yet on guard. The door slid shut and van sped off through the empty streets of Shardon. Taking back roads, the van managed to evade the local authorities.

The van came to a halt and one masked man opened the back doors.

"Out," Cyrus ordered.

The girls hopped out of the van and Matella followed them to the back door.

"Now can you answer my questions?" Thorn asked in frustration.

Matella chuckled and reached into her pocket. She grabbed something small enough to be enclosed in her hand.

"If you want answers, find us again," Matella responded, tossing the item to Thorn. "Otherwise, never tell anyone about this night."

Thorn caught the object and inspected it. The object was round, about three inches in diameter and about two inches in height. It resembled a gray locket, but there were no obvious ways of opening it. Thorn noticed that there were fifteen raised symbols on the surface of one side of the item, symbols she didn't recognize. The other side was completely smooth. The edge of the object was ridged like a coin and separated the two halves.

"What is this?" Thorn asked as she looked back at Matella.

But the van doors had already closed. The van then started up and drove off, leaving the girls alone in the hotel parking lot much to Thorn's dissatisfaction.

"Holy shit! That was insane!" Dusk exclaimed, essentially summarizing the entire night.

Luna sighed with exhaustion. "I'm going to bed, tonight was too much," the redhead stated as she headed to their hotel room.

Thorn just looked at the mysterious item.

"What's that?" Dusk asked, noticing the item.

"No idea," Thorn said and put the object in her pocket.

Thorn yawned. While she wanted to investigate the object, she knew it would have to wait until tomorrow. She and Dusk then followed Luna back to the hotel room.

* * *

"Where the hell were you three? I've been trying to call you all night!" an irate Gus shouted as the three exhausted girls entered the hotel room.

He paused for a moment when he saw their appearances. All three of them were completely disheveled and covered in dirt; their clothes were charred and their hair was singed.

"What happened? Are you girls okay?" Gus asked, his anger replaced with concern.

"Thorn's a witch," Dusk muttered with a slight chuckle as she, Luna and Thorn passed Gus and collapsed into their respective beds.

"Huh?" Gus stuttered while shaking his head. "If you don't want to tell me what happened, fine. Just be aware that we need to be on the road by eight, as I got you girls a replacement gig in New York."

"Ughhhhh," the girls collectively groaned.

Gus sighed, turned the light off and exited the room, and closed the door behind him.

In the darkness, Thorn's mind raced with all sorts of questions, but her body's exhaustion was too much; she passed out within a few minutes of laying down.

* * *

"Hey Thorn! Get your ass out of bed!" Dusk hollered as she shook the still asleep girl.

"Huh? What time is it?" Thorn groaned into her pillow as she woke from her slumber.

"It's quarter to eight, you got fifteen minutes to get ready," Luna replied.

It took Thorn a minute to process the information and another to realize she had overslept.

"Shit!" Thorn shrieked as she jumped out of bed. "Why didn't you wake me up earlier?"

"We tried waking you several times, but you wouldn't get up," Luna said.

Thorn was surprised to find out she slept through her friends’ efforts to wake her as she was a light sleeper, but quickly brushed the thought away. She grabbed some spare clothes from one of her duffel bags and headed into the bathroom. She glanced at the shower and groaned; she desperately needed and wanted a shower, but she knew she didn't have time for it, so she just changed out of her charred clothes and into the new ones. She headed over to the sink and washed the soot, dirt and old makeup off her face.

"Jeeze, you look terrible," Thorn said to herself while looking at her reflection in the mirror.

She struggled to keep her eyes open, which were sunken and had dark circles beneath them. Her hair was an absolute mess and the singed ends were dreadful.

"Ugh," she sighed realizing how much time it would take to actually fix her hair, time she didn't have.

She grabbed her brush and spent most of her remaining time trying to fix her hair.

"I'll deal with this on the bus," Thorn sighed, her hair looking more presentable.

She gathered the rest of her belongings and threw everything into the duffel bags. Packed, she headed out the door to find the tour bus running and ready to go; Luna, Dusk and Gus having long since finished loading their bags onto the bus and Gus was waiting outside for Thorn.

"I thought I made it clear that we needed to be out by eight," Gus said pointing at his watch.

"Sorry Gus, I won't do it again," Thorn half-apologized as she rushed past him with her bags and boarded the bus.

Thorn tossed her bags haphazardly onto the floor before falling into her cot, oblivious to Luna and Dusk's concerned looks.

"Are you alright?" Dusk asked.

Thorn just stayed in her cot.

"Give me ten minutes," Thorn mumbled into her pillow, the reply barely audible to Dusk and Luna.

* * *

Thorn blinked several times as she woke up and climbed out of the cot. She felt better than before, but was still drowsy. She made her way over to the mini-fridge in search of food.

"So much for ten minutes," Luna joked, sitting on the couch working on some music sheets.

"How long was I out for?" Thorn asked.

"Almost an hour and a half," the redhead replied.

_ Shit _ Thorn thought, surprised by how long she was asleep for. She had many long nights before— most of their shows would start late in the evening and Thorn wrote some of the band's best songs in the early morning hours –but she always got up when she needed to. Oversleeping and then passing out later was not normal.

"Well, last night was a lot for me," Thorn sighed as rummaged through the mini-fridge, eventually grabbing a small bowl of fruit salad.

Luna placed the music sheets on her lap as Thorn slumped into the seat next to her.

"You're not taking this too well, aren't you?" Luna said.

Thorn moved several pieces around with her fork, shook her head and sighed.

"I don't know…" Thorn stuttered. "It's all so confusing and overwhelming."

Luna nodded in agreement.

"I don't know what I am anymore" Thorn began as she placed the bowl of fruit to the side and her face began turning red. "I mean, am I really…a witch?"

The Wiccan looked down at her trembling hands; they seemed so foreign and unknowable to her. Thorn felt a hand on her shoulder and caught a glance of Luna's dark purple nails.

"I don't know but it doesn't matter," Luna said. "You're still Thorn, a badass rock star and my friend."

Thorn couldn't help but smile a bit at her friend's comforting words, but it receded after a few fleeting moments of reassurance.

"But why me and why didn't this magic show up before? I've lost count of how many times I tried to cast a spell or do a ritual and nothing happened. It doesn't make any sense!" Thorn vented as tears welled up in her eyes.

"What about when you defeated Sarah Ravencroft? That had to count for something," Luna suggested, trying to calm her friend down.

"I don't know anymore," Thorn responded while shaking her head. "I thought that had to do with me being Wiccan. But if it was really because of something else I had no control over, then…"

Tears trickled down Thorn's pale cheek as she stopped to cry. Luna pulled the crying girl closer to her.

"And when I find people who can provide me with answers, they dip! I'm left with even more questions and a fucking…I don't even know what it is!" Thorn ranted between sobs.

Luna leaned back and put her hand to her chin. "What are you talking about?"

Thorn shrugged and wiped her face.

"Matella gave me this coin thing before she left," the Wiccan explained as she tried to regain her composure.

"Can I see it?" Luna responded.

Thorn got up and rummaged through her duffel bag. She removed the mysterious item and handed it to Luna. The redhead looked over the object and was just as confused as Thorn.

"Did she say anything when she gave this to you?" Luna questioned without looking up from the object.

"Yeah," Thorn said between a few sniffles as she started to calm back down. "She said 'find us again or don't talk about this night to anyone.'"

Luna continued to inspect the object. Thorn knew Luna was deeply in thought.  _ If anyone can figure out what that is, it'll be Luna _ the Wiccan thought while watching her friend try to help her.

After twenty minutes of the two looking over the object, Luna's eyes widened and she smiled, much to Thorn's delight; she hoped Luna had figured out what the item was. Maybe then she could finally get the questions she had about herself and last night answered.

"They're coordinates!" Luna exclaimed as she gave the item back to Thorn.

"How could you tell?" Thorn asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Matella's comment indicated that this was supposed to help us find them, so I figured it was some kind of map or compass," Luna explained. "But the fifteen symbols didn't make much sense until I realized the significance of the number fifteen."

"And that would be what exactly?" Thorn replied trying to think of some occult meaning for fifteen but was drawing a blank.

Luna pulled out her phone and opened a map application. She turned her phone to Thorn and pointed to a set of coordinates showing their approximate location in the upper right corner of the screen: 41.12218, -073.35515

"There's fifteen digits in the coordinates," Thorn realized.

"At least in certain formats," Luna clarified. "But based on what we do know about this thing, it's my best guess."

Thorn smiled, maybe she would get her answers. But when she looked up at Luna, the redhead wasn't smiling.  _ Oh no, there's a catch _ Thorn thought as her smile diminished.

"Unfortunately, we don't know which number correlates to which symbol, so it's pretty much impossible to determine the correct location," Luna added with a frown.

"Great," Thorn sighed as she slouched back into her seat.

Finding the truth about herself seemed so far out of Thorn's grasp and every minute she spent in the dark felt like she was getting further away from it.  _ What if I never find the answers _ ? Thorn shuddered as she tried to brush away the negative thoughts.

"Hey, why don't we get Dusk to fix your hair?" Luna said, grabbing the end of Thorn's hair in an attempt to take Thorn's mind off the mystery item and her crisis of faith. "These singed tips aren't doing your looks any favors."

Thorn chuckled. "Oh yeah, I have to do something about this pronto," she wearily said.

Luna grabbed a crumpled up ball of paper and tossed it at Dusk, who was laying in her cot facing away from the two other girls. The blonde bobbed her head to the music she was listening to through her headphones and was engrossed in one of her magazines, oblivious to anything outside. The wad of paper hit Dusk right in the head.

"What do you want, Luna?" Dusk said as she removed her headphones and put down her magazine.

The drummer turned to Luna but saw Thorn. Dusk hopped out of bed with a concerned look on her face.

"Good to see you're awake," Dusk said. "You doing okay?"

"Yeah," Thorn replied, though her tone suggested otherwise. "Think you could help me with the singed tips?"

"Absolutely," Dusk cheered. "Take a seat and I'll go get my supplies."

Thorn smiled. At least this would keep her mind off things for a while.

"Oh yeah, I almost forgot," Dusk said as she rummaged through a bag. "I picked up a few things when we were in town."

Thorn looked over at Dusk. She was holding a pair of silver necklaces. Her attention was drawn to the necklace with a bat pendant, not unlike the ruby one she often wore when performing.

"Wanna try it on?" Dusk asked as she handed the necklace to Thorn.

"Sure," Thorn said and she took the necklace.

"OW!" Thorn shouted and she flung the necklace across the bus. Her fingers were red, as if they were burnt, which was the best way to describe the pain she felt. She rubbed her fingers and the redness quickly subsided.

"What, you don't like silver?" Dusk teased as she retrieved the necklace.

Thorn shook her head in confusion. "Must've been a static shock," she said trying to rationalize the situation. She didn't want to deal with whatever just happened. "Can you just help me with my hair?"

"Yeah," Dusk replied, as she looked at the necklace in her hand. "Whatever you need."


	6. Concert Prep and Uncovered Secrets

The remainder of the drive was uneventful and Thorn was thankful that the ride was over when the tour bus drove up the road that led to the front of a large, round glass building overlooking the Hudson River that glistened in the mid-afternoon sunlight. The road was paralleled by a grass paver dotted with small trees spaced evenly apart that served to separate the parking lots from the road. The van circled around a fountain surrounded by spotlights at the end of the road. Above the entrance were large letters spelling out 'Hudson Valley Performance Center' with smaller letters beneath them showing that the building was in Bolfield, New York. From the van, Thorn could see signs reading 'The Hex Girls-Tonight at 9:00 PM' with images of her and her bandmates beneath the caption.

"Wow, Gus must've worked overtime to get this going," Dusk said while looking through the window.

Thorn glanced across the bus out the opposite window. The parking lots were already full of cars despite the show not starting until the evening. Thorn had to admit that Gus pulled off a miracle with setting up this show last minute.

The bus drove around to the backside of the venue and pulled up to the back entrance.

"Guess it's time to get to work," Luna said as she grabbed one of her bags.

Thorn just nodded, grabbed a bag and exited the bus with Luna and Dusk behind her. Outside, Gus was talking to a blonde woman in her early thirties dressed in a blue shirt with the venue's name printed in white letters on the front, a white skirt that went down to just past her knees and a pair of white high heels. The woman held a touchpad and was discussing the venue with Gus.

"We've managed to get most of the people who had tickets for the cancelled show seats here," the woman said. "Though it will be a bit cramped as we are at max capacity."

"Excellent," Gus remarked as the two noticed the girls exiting the bus. "And here are the stars themselves."

Thorn smiled as the woman rushed over to them and shook their hands.

"It's so nice to meet you three," the woman said. "I'm Gloria Wright, the manager of the Hudson Valley Performance Center."

"It's a pleasure to meet you," Thorn replied.

With the introductions finished, Gloria led the girls and Gus into the building.

"Don't worry about your equipment, I'll have my staff unload it for you," Gloria stated.

Thorn watched as several staff members walked past her and headed to the bus where they began unloading the various pieces of equipment from the back of the bus. Thorn grinned, at least she wouldn't have to carry everything in. The black-haired girl turned her attention back to Gloria and the rest of the group as they made their way to the stage.

* * *

_ Impressive  _ Thorn thought as she and the rest of the group reached the stage. For what amounted to a last minute change of venue, the performance center got a lot done in such a short period of time: the speaker system was set up and ready go; the spotlights and overhead lights were almost done and the backdrop depicting the Hex Girls logo—two purple concentric circles with four lines connecting the two and 'HEX' written in the center circle—was set up. The only thing left to set up were Dusk's drums and Luna's keyboards, which were being brought onto the stage by some of the staff members.

"Are we going to get a chance to test the equipment?" Luna asked as she looked over one of the speakers.

"Of course," Gloria said. "Feel free to test whatever you like."

Thorn watched as Luna walked to where one of the staff members was removing part of her three-piece keyboard set from its case.

"Sorry, but nobody touches my keyboard," Luna asserted as she walked up to the startled staff member.

"My bad miss," the staff member said as he quickly placed the keyboard back in its case and backed away from the redhead.

A second staff member gave an awkward laugh as he placed down what turned out to be part of Dusk's acoustic drum kit; the blonde gave him a stern look.

"I'll just grab the last cases from the bus and let you set it up," the staff member said as he started walking back to the bus.

"Good call," Dusk replied with her hands on her hips.

Thorn smirked at seeing her friends get defensive over their instruments. It made sense as they had been using the same equipment since they first started the band years ago. Still, it was always funny to watch them react to others even touching their instruments.

Thorn's reminiscing ended as she caught sight of another staff member carrying her guitar case. She ran over to the staff member and snatched the case from his hands.

"Thanks, I got it from here," Thorn said.

"Fine by me," the staff member replied.

Thorn nodded to the staff member to acknowledge his help and he walked off stage. She tried not to sound rude, or at least not as rude as Dusk and Luna, as she was just as protective over her guitar as her friends were of their instruments.

Thorn opened the case and removed the customized guitar she had received from her parents years ago: the elegant black-and-red body in the shape of a bat, the smooth gray neck and the red V-shaped headstock made the guitar the most iconic instrument in the band. Of course, some of the tricks she learned over the years made her and the guitar quite popular, the most notable being the "witch's cauldron" where Thorn would swirl the guitar as if she was mixing a potion in a pot.

Thorn smiled as she took out a pick and strung out the first notes of "Earth, Wind, Fire & Air." Her smile diminished as she sighed and rolled her eyes.  _ Why is it always out of tune? _ She made some quick adjustments and repeated the previous notes.

"That's better," she said to herself.

She continued to play miscellaneous notes as she paced back and forth across the stage, trying to get a feel for space on the stage, the room's acoustics, the lighting and other aspects of the performance. After a few minutes, she paused in the center of the stage and concluded that everything seemed fine.  _ Now to get back to this _ . She tapped her pocket containing the mystery item Matella gave her. She made her way to a guitar rack that was set up nearby and placed her guitar there. Thorn walked past her bandmates, who were busy setting up their instruments, and approached Gus and Gloria.

"Hey, where's the changing room?" Thorn asked.

"Go to the end of the hall, turn right and it's the first door on the left," Gloria answered.

"Thanks," Thorn said and she turned to go down the hall.

But before she could leave, she felt a hand on her shoulder. She turned to see Gus with a concerned look on his face.

"You're not going to finish testing out the equipment?" Gus questioned.

"No, everything looks fine," Thorn answered.

Gus raised an eyebrow.

"But you didn't test the…" Gus began.

"It's fine," Thorn replied with her voice slightly raised, cutting off her manager.

She brushed off Gus's hand and resumed walking down the hall.

"Darling, are you alright?" Gus called out to her.

Thorn didn't look back or stop walking.

"Yeah," she said as she removed the item from her pocket.

Thorn looked over the object, oblivious to anything else around, and walked down the hall.

* * *

"How does this sound?" Dusk asked as she played the percussion part of "Hex Girls."

Luna chuckled. Even for just testing sound quality, Luna had to admire Dusk's passion and energy when playing the drums; her strikes looked chaotic, but in actuality each one was carefully timed and precise.

"I think you'll need a few more microphones," Luna laughed.

"There's already like eight here, do I really need more?" Dusk groaned as she grabbed some extra mics from a nearby case.

"Two more and you'll be good," Luna said.

As Dusk set the additional microphones up, Luna turned her attention back to her keyboards. The two gray keyboards decorated with the band's logos were arranged in the shape of an upside-down 'L' which gave her easy access to both keyboards. The redhead made her way over to the keyboards where she checked on both pieces of equipment. She looked over the electronic keyboard first and found it to be in working order. She then looked over the second—and arguably the more important of the two—keyboards. The second keyboard had a series of buttons, dials and sliders in addition to the keys and was connected to a computer system and mixing board located offstage. Here, the venue's mixing engineer would manage all the sounds coming from off stage and ensure the best quality music for the audience. Luna glanced up to the small structure above the entrance to the seating area that was lined up with the center of the stage. Through the windows, Luna could see the mixing engineer looking at several monitors. While the mixing engineer would control what the audience heard, Dusk, Luna and Thorn needed to hear a completely different mix (primarily to make sure they were in tune, synchronized and sounded good). This is where the monitor mix came in, though Luna wasn't sure where the monitor mixing engineer was.

Luna walked over to Gloria, who was still talking with Gus.

"Do you have someone to manage the monitor mix?" Luna asked with her arms crossed.

Gloria hesitated.

"Um, well…our technician couldn't make it tonight," Gloria said with an embarrassed laugh. "You know, this being a last minute show."

_ Great _ Luna thought as she rolled her eyes. "So I have to do it myself then," Luna sighed.

"Sorry," Gloria meekly replied.

The redhead turned away from the embarrassed woman and returned to her keyboard set. She placed her hands on the second keyboard and groaned.

"Just what I needed," Luna said to herself. "More stress."

She glanced away from the keyboards for a moment and looked at another case that rested against the wall several feet from her and groaned.  _ Ugh, no bass tonight.  _ While she was better known for playing the keyboards, Luna also occasionally played the bass. She enjoyed it and wished she got to play more of it as it was much less stressful than the keyboards. She groaned again as she turned away from the case.

"What happened now?" Dusk asked after noticing her friend's frustration.

"There's nobody to control the monitor mix, so I have to do it," the keyboardist replied.

"Oh. That sucks," Dusk said not knowing what else to say.

Luna slowly nodded. Without another sound engineer, Luna would have to control what she, Dusk and Thorn would hear when performing. At any moment during the concert, if Dusk or Thorn signaled for an adjustment in their sound, Luna would have to make it on the fly with the second keyboard  _ while  _ performing.  _ It's not even a full day after I was nearly killed by a ghost, and now I have to make sure we don't fuck up a concert _ . Luna started preparing her equipment for the additional workload.

"Hey, I'll try not to be too much of a problem for you," Dusk said as she nudged her friend on her shoulder.

Luna broke from her thoughts and smiled at her friend.

"Thanks," Luna said with a slight chuckle.

Dusk nodded and returned to her drum set.

Rest assured that Dusk would help her out, Luna felt much better about the concert. She resumed working on the keyboard but then paused after a few minutes.  _ I still need to tell Thorn _ Luna remembered.

"Hey Thorn," Luna called out without looking up from the device.

No answer.

"Hey Thorn!" Luna repeated, slightly louder than before.

Still no answer.

Luna looked up from the keyboard and realized that Thorn was nowhere in sight. She glanced around the stage and noticed Thorn's guitar was on a guitar rack.

"Where's Thorn?" Luna asked aloud, her tone becoming annoyed.

"Hmm? She's right he…" Dusk stopped and noticed that the guitarist was gone. "Never mind."

Luna sighed and went back over to Gus and Gloria.

"Where the hell did Thorn go?" Luna stated.

Gus sighed.

"That poor girl took off to the dressing room hardly ten minutes ago with something on her mind," the manager responded.

Luna and Dusk nodded as they ran down the hall to the dressing room.

* * *

Thorn sat in one of the spinning chairs in the dressing room, her feet kicked up on the counter. She looked over a page from one of her symbology books before glancing up at the inscribed object she had placed on the counter. Thorn frowned, flipped the page and looked back at the book. She sighed and turned the page only to sigh again as she saw the empty back cover.

"Nothing," she muttered to herself as she tossed the useless book onto the counter.

The black-haired girl crossed her arms and glared at the symbols on the object that had eluded her attempts at identification.  _ What the hell do they mean  _ Thorn pondered as she placed her hand on her chin. Her thoughts were broken when she heard the door open.

"Hey Thorn, this place doesn't have a monitor mixer so I have to do it now," Luna hollered.

"Oh, okay," Thorn said without looking away from the object.

Luna and Dusk approached Thorn.

"Can you put that thing away for one night so we can focus on the concert?" Luna said.

Thorn sighed. She took her feet off the counter, swirled the chair so she could face her friends, and then crossed her legs.

"I'm sorry Luna, but I need answers," Thorn replied.

Luna closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She then opened her eyes.

"Look, I understand that this means a lot to you, and I really want to help you, but we have a concert to put on," Luna said. "So I need you to put this puzzle on pause and be a rockstar."

Thorn bit her lip. She wanted to admit that Luna was right and her friends were depending on her to perform well, but images of the symbols kept flooding her mind and she glanced back at the inscribed object.

"I just can't focus on anything else but this stupid thing!" Thorn shouted and, without watching, swiped her hand over the item in frustration.

Thorn flinched when she heard several makeup containers fall to the ground followed by a loud thud. The startled girl got up from the chair and turned toward the source of the noise and saw the inscribed object, while covered in splotches of assorted makeup, impaled into the wall about fifteen feet from the counter.

"What the hell happened?" Thorn asked as she turned back to her friends.

Luna was wide-eyed and she covered her mouth with her hand while Dusk had a childlike grin on her face.

"You totally just moved that thing with your mind like a Jedi," Dusk said with a smirk.

_ No _ Thorn thought shaking her head in attempt to push away those thoughts but her doubt waned as she looked at the object in the wall and then back at her friends; Luna's was just as startled and confused as Thorn was while Dusk was adamant that Thorn somehow made the object impale itself into the wall.

"I…" Thorn began but stopped as she had no idea what to say.

The Wiccan glanced around the room looking for a way to escape from the whole confusing situation. She noticed in the back of the room a door labeled 'shower' and grabbed some bathing supplies from one of her bags the venue staff had brought in. After all, she still needed a shower after the previous night.

"I'm going to take that shower now," Thorn stated before hurrying over to the door.

"Don't you wanna see what else you could do?" Dusk asked.

"Nope," Thorn replied without hesitation as she disappeared behind the door.

* * *

Dusk walked over to the object and pulled it out of the wall. She briefly looked at the hole left by the object and pushed a clothing rack in front of it.

"We should be gone by the time they find the damage," she commented with a smile.

With the hole dealt with, Dusk returned her attention back to the item. She didn't recognize any of the symbols nor did she have the slightest clue as to what the item was but none of that was important to her.  _ Thorn's a witch _ the drummer thought with a giant grin on her face and that was all that mattered. She had just watched her friend, albeit unintentionally, send an item flying across the room with only a wave of her hand and the blonde wanted to know what else she was capable of. Her imagination ran wild with all the things the band could do with real supernatural magic.

"Luna, you know how much cool shit we could do with magic?" Dusk asked her friend before enthusiastically listing off several ideas. "We could cast spells on people and make them do what we want them to or write magic infused songs or even magically create unlimited amounts of liquor."

That last option made Dusk's eyes light up in excitement.

"Are you serious!?" Luna shouted. "After seeing Thorn distraught from this your first thought is to use her to get drunk!"

Dusk sighed, bit her lip and looked down at the floor. She was so caught up in what  _ she _ would do with magic that she failed to consider how Thorn was dealing with the whole situation.

Dusk looked back up at Luna and feigned a smile.

"Relax, it was just a really bad joke," Dusk backpedaled. "I wouldn't actually make her do any of those things if she didn't want to."

Dusk sat down in the chair as Luna glared at her. Still holding the object, Dusk swirled the chair around so she didn't have to see Luna. She sighed and looked at her reflection in the mirror.  _ Ugh, you messed up that one _ . She needed a distraction. She glanced back down at the object and balanced it on its side. With a flick of her wrist, Dusk rolled the object across the counter and it left a streak of makeup in its wake before it hit the wall and fell down. As she went to pick the item up, Dusk's attention was brought to the streak. She leaned closer and her eyes widened when she saw a single letter:  **ē.**

"Whoa, there's something written on the edge of this thing," Dusk stated.

"What do you mean?" Luna asked as her frustration with Dusk was replaced with genuine curiosity.

The redhead walked over to Dusk and looked down at the makeup streak.

"I don't see it," Luna said.

"What are you blind?" Dusk teased. "The letter 'e' is clearly there."

Luna leaned closer to the streak. After a few moments she grabbed the object and rolled the item's edge in some more makeup. She then rolled the item across the counter.

"Ha, I was right," Dusk exclaimed as she leaned back into the chair.

Luna said nothing as she finished with the item. Dusk glanced back at the streak and noticed a string of small letters in the makeup that repeated a single word: revēlō.

"Re-vel-o," Dusk read. "What's that like Spanish or something?"

Luna shrugged, pulled out her phone and looked up the word.

"Latin actually," Luna corrected. "It means 'I reveal or show.'"

"Soooo… is it supposed to show us something now?" Dusk asked as she picked up the object.

Luna shrugged and raised her hands. With her friend unable to figure it out, Dusk looked back at the object. After a few moments, Dusk grinned.

"What if it's like a spell?" Dusk reasoned.

Luna raised an eyebrow. "That sounds pretty cliché." 

Dusk admitted that it was a cliché idea; say a Latin word or phrase and then some magic happened. But after the past twenty-four hours, Dusk was willing to try anything.

"Hey, I don't see you coming up with any better ideas," Dusk defended.

"Okay then, recite the spell," Luna dared.

"Pfft, fine," Dusk said.

She placed the object on the counter and took a moment to center it. She stretched her arms, briefly turned to Luna and nodded before looking back at the object.

"Revēlō," Dusk said.

Nothing happened.

"Revēlō!" Dusk said much louder than before.

Still nothing. The drummer repeated the word several more times and even waved her hand over the object like Matella and Thorn had done the previous night. Yet nothing happened. Dusk looked back at Luna only to see her chuckling and the blonde grimaced in response. Dusk grunted as this all but confirmed that she didn't have any magical abilities. She glanced over to the showers as she acknowledged that Thorn was the only one who could get the object to reveal its secrets.


	7. It's Showtime

"So what did you find?" Thorn asked with a smile.

She was barely out of the shower when she heard Dusk pounding on the door and shouting about a spell they found on the object. Thorn was still in her black bathrobe and her hair was wrapped in a towel as she eagerly waited for her friends to tell her the news.

"We found the Latin word 'Revēlō' inscribed on the edge of the object," Luna explained.

Dusk nudged her with her elbow. "You mean, I found it," she proudly clarified.

"You found one letter," Luna corrected.

"But without that letter, you wouldn't have found the rest of the word," Dusk argued.

"So what does it mean?" Thorn interjected and ended the tangent argument.

"Well…" Luna began.

"It's a spell and you need to cast it," Dusk exclaimed, interrupting Luna.

"We don't know for certain," Luna added.

The two began another needless argument but Thorn paid no attention to it. Her smile receded as she glanced at the object. Still spooked from the earlier incident with it, Thorn shivered at the thought of using magic. Not knowing what would happen—if anything even happened—was nerve-racking. But Thorn closed her eyes, took a deep breath and slowly exhaled. _Thorn, if you don't try, you'll never get answers to any of this_. She opened her eyes, walked over to the counter and raised a trembling hand over the object.

"Okay…" she murmured.

She paused for a moment and glanced over to her friends. They were still arguing over whether or not 'revēlō' was a spell.

"Okay," Thorn said, raising her voice loud enough to catch Dusk and Luna's attention.

"Hmm," Luna muttered.

"What was the word again?" Thorn stalled as she knew full well what the word was.

"Revēlō," the keyboardist replied.

Thorn nodded and took another deep breath. _Just say the word_. She exhaled.

"Revēlō," Thorn said as she took a step back from the counter.

As she stepped away from the counter, the various lines, dots and marks that made up the symbols glowed blueish-white. Then as if they had a life of their own, the symbols moved like worms squirming across the surface of the object. Thorn's eyes widened as the symbols twisted and bent themselves into recognizable numbers. _Unbelievable_ Thorn thought as the object finally disclosed its secrets. After a couple moments, the newly created numbers became still and the glow faded away.

"That was awesome," Dusk cheered.

Thorn wasn't sure if she could entirely agree with her friend. While it was great that she now had a lead to Matella, something didn't feel right. Thorn realized that she was still trembling. She took another deep breath and slowly exhaled in an attempt to calm herself down.

"Thorn, you alright?" Luna asked.

"Hmm. Oh yeah," Thorn replied while caught off guard by Luna's question. "This is all still confusing."

"You and me both," Luna acknowledged.

"Oh it's not that confusing," Dusk exclaimed. "Thorn, you're a witch and can use magic."

Thorn flinched.

"Don't call me that," Thorn said.

"Call you what, a witch?" Dusk responded.

"Yes," Thorn said in a raised voice.

"But you are one; Matella and Cyrus both called you a witch, hell even a real ghost said you were one," Dusk argued. "And how else are you supposed to explain all that shit you did!"

Dusk motioned over to the object.

"Explain that," Dusk said.

Thorn didn't say anything. She still refused to acknowledge herself as a witch; her Wiccan heritage would not accept it. Witches and warlocks were evil, while the Wiccans were good. But her own actions contradicted that belief. Having no explanation for why the object reacted to her saying the word wasn't helping Thorn's case either. Thorn glanced over to Luna for help, but Luna shrugged. _Damnit_. If Luna didn't have a rational explanation for this, then there was no way Thorn was going to find one.

"I'm a Wiccan, so I can't be a witch," Thorn hastily said, though she was not as confident in that statement as she was in the past.

"Suit yourself," Dusk said with a shrug.

There was an awkward silence for a minute or two before Luna picked up the object. She took out her phone and looked up the numbers.

"Well, I was right that these are coordinates," Luna said while showing Dusk and Thorn the screen. "They're just over an hour away, outside Albany."

Thorn looked at the screen. The coordinates appeared in a wooded area in the outskirts of the city. Between the trees, it looked like there was a building. Thorn tried to zoom in, but it only made the screen blurry and it was impossible to tell what exactly was there. At that moment, she just wanted to get dressed and go straight to the site. But a loud knock at the door brought her back to reality.

The door swung open and Gus and Gloria entered the room.

"Girls, I do pray that you three are actually getting ready for your performance," Gus said.

"Of course," Thorn said as she grabbed the object and hid it behind her back. "I just showered and was getting ready to change into my outfit."

"Good. Have you determined which songs you'll be playing?" he asked.

 _Shit_.

"Um…" she began while trying to think of an excuse for not having a compilation of songs ready.

"We were discussing that when you came in," Luna interjected.

"Yes," Thorn added. "We're starting out with 'Hex Girls' like usual."

"And we're closing with "Earth, Wind, Fire & Air" as usual," Dusk added.

The three girls smiled at Gus and Thorn hoped he bought their charade. But Gus raised an eyebrow and gave them a stern look.

"Thorn, you just got out of the shower and were going to get changed while Luna, you said you three were preparing a song compilation," Gus said. "What, were you three discussing this through the bathroom door?"

The girls' smiles quickly faded, but Thorn wasn't ready to admit defeat. If lying to him was not going to work, then maybe annoying him would get him to back down.

"Yes, that's exactly what we were doing," Thorn said with a good dose of sarcasm. "Congrats Gus, you finally figured out how we prepare our shows."

Dusk and Luna laughed; even Gloria could not help but smirk at Thorn's comment. Gus crossed his arms and sighed.

"You three have no idea what you're playing tonight," Gus sighed.

"Uh, we just told you what we're playing," Dusk replied.

Gus sighed again.

"I don't have time to argue with any of you," he sighed. "Just tell the sound mixer what you three are playing within the hour. Please do this."

"Will do," Luna said.

With that, Gus and Gloria exited the room. Thorn laughed as she overheard Gus mumbling to Gloria about how the girls could be too much at times. As the door slammed shut, the girls sighed with relief.

"We should probably finalize what songs we are playing," Luna said.

"Yeah," Thorn said, half acknowledging Luna's statement and she went back to looking at the coordinates.

"Hey, those coordinates aren't going anywhere; they'll be here after the show," Luna said as she gently put her hand on the object and removed it from Thorn's hands.

 _She's right_. Thorn nodded to her friend.

"Alright," the black-haired girl said.

"Now go get dressed," Luna said. "Dusk and I will deal with the songs."

Thorn thanked her friends and headed over to a separate changing room.

* * *

A few hours later….

"I'm a Hex Girl and I'm gonna put a spell on you!" Thorn sang as she played her guitar.

Clad in her iconic red and black dress, with the matching fingerless gloves, ankle strapped heels, red sash and her ruby bat necklace, the crowd went into a frenzy of cheering and shouting as they watched the lead singer begin the chorus. Blue and purple spotlights dazzled the stage from above like twinkling stars while hidden smoke machines created a light fog that glowed in the lights as it slowly circled the stage. The mystifying effects energized the crowd; their cheers grew louder as the song advanced.

"And I'm going to put a spell on you!" Thorn repeated followed by Dusk and Luna singing the lyric in unison.

As the first chorus finished, Thorn ever so slightly flinched. She noticed this irregularity and brushed it off as nothing.

"You'll feel the fog when I cloud your mind, you'll get dizzy when I make a sign," Thorn sang as she put her hand to her forehead and stumbled back a bit to make it look like she was dizzy.

"You'll wake up in the dead of night, missing me when I'm out of sight!" she sang as she spun around to face Dusk and Luna as the verse ended.

Not only was spinning around good for theatrics, but it also allowed Thorn to check on her bandmates to make sure everything was going smoothly. Dusk gave her a slight nod as she struck each drum while Luna gave a quick thumbs up between keystrokes. Thorn nodded to them and turned back to the crowd.

Together, the three girls sang the chorus and the crowd went wild. But once again, Thorn flinched as she sang the lyrics. She felt uneasy as if she had said something inappropriate in front of the crowd. _Get a hold of yourself_ she thought as she snapped her attention back to singing. Yet she couldn't fully brush off the feeling that something was wrong nor could she identify what exactly was bothering her.

Thorn played a few more notes before stopping as the song's bridge began.

"With this little cobweb potion, you'll fall into dark devotion," Thorn sang waving her fingers over an imaginary pot.

For the third time, Thorn flinched. _Okay, what the hell is going on?_ She continued through the rest the stanza

"If you ever lose affection, I can change your whole direction!" she sang as music beat faster and the final chorus started.

"I'm a Hex Girl and I'm gonna put a spell on you!" the three girls sang.

 _Wait_ Thorn thought. _Can I actually put a spell on someone?_ She flinched again as Dusk and Luna sang the lyric.

"I'm a Hex Girl and I'm gonna put a spell on you," the three of them repeated, holding the "you" for several seconds.

 _I mean, if I casted a spell earlier…_ she felt herself shuddering. _No. No that would mean that I'm a…_ she didn't finish the thought.

"We're gonna put a spell on you!" they sang as they each threw a pellet onto the ground that created a puff of green, purple and red smoke for Dusk, Luna and Thorn respectively.

The crowd burst into applause as the song ended while clapping, cheering and whistling echoed throughout the venue. Yet Thorn didn't share the crowd's excitement.

 _But how else can I explain what I did_ ? The thought kept coming back along with the discomfort it brought her. _I'm not a witch. I'm a Wiccan. I might pretend to be a witch for shows, but I'm not really one. I can't be._ Thorn shook her head and looked back at the crowd. She felt like she had just told a lie.

The colored smoke cleared, which meant the band had to transition into the next song, which happened to be the "The Witch's Ghost".

Thorn grabbed the microphone from the stand and faced the crowd. Right now, any other song would have been so much easier to introduce.

"How'd everyone like that one?" Thorn asked the crowd.

The crowd responded with cheers.

"Our next song is about a problem we have. A witch problem," she said. _Ugh, why'd you say witch problem, it's a ghost problem._ She hesitated for a moment as the crowd cheered in anticipation for the next song. Thorn subtly sighed and went off her usual script.

"She's quite frightening," Thorn said. "And she's got some serious magic."

The crowd remained unaware of who Thorn was talking and so did Thorn, albeit only momentarily.

"So who's ready for the witch?" Thorn asked.

The crowd cheered louder than before.

"Alright!" Thorn shouted. "Hit it sisters!"

The three girls began playing and the crowd roared with excitement as the music filled the venue.

 _Damnit! Why didn't you talk about Sarah or Alexander? They were both ghosts_ she wondered. The two phantoms, while dangerous and impactful enough to be the aforementioned "witch problem", were not the focus of Thorn's thoughts.

"We got a ghost problem, I can feel it in my bones," Thorn sang and she was momentarily freed from her thoughts. "We got a ghost problem. I don't think that we're alone."

The song continued and Luna and Dusk provided backup vocals.

"I can feel a cold chill, running up my spine," the guitarist sang. "I can feel a cold hand and it isn't fine."

The crowd erupted into a frenzy of cheering as the chorus started.

"It's the witch's ghost! She's the one we fear the most! If she catches us we're toast!" the Hex Girls sang.

But as she sang the chorus, Thorn flinched. _You still can't be afraid of Sarah_ the Wiccan thought. _You just fought Alexander with magic…._ she shuddered. In the past, Thorn would've trembled at the thought of Sarah Ravencroft, even after all these years. But today, the phantom was irrelevant as she shuddered at a concept that was more terrifying than a ghost. An idea that attacked her very identity and faith. A thought she could not shake from her mind no matter how hard she tried.

"There's nothing worse, than a curse! The witch's ghost is on the loose!" the girls continued.

Beep!

The earpiece she had on was going off which, much to her relief, dragged Thorn out of her thoughts and back to the performance. The earpieces allowed the girls to communicate with each other during the song if there was an issue.

"Sing faster. Your pacing was off on that last lyric," she heard Luna say over the earpiece.

 _Shit_. She was so caught up in her mind that she didn't realize that she was not following the song's pacing. She glanced at Luna and nodded.

"We got a ghost problem and the answers in the book." Thorn sang. _Eh, the answer is in Albany of all places._ She grimaced. _Save it for after the show._

"Much better," Luna replied.

Thorn smiled. For a few moments, everything was going well with her performance. _But being a witch is the only explanation for what I did._ The thought she feared the most popped back into her mind. Thorn shivered, ironically at the same time she sang the lyric that mentioned shivering, at her own thought. _No, no, no,_ she thought while shaking her head.

Beep!

"It's the witch's ghost! She's what we fear the most!" Thorn sang as the beep jolted her back to the performance.

There was no response from Dusk or Luna as they were also singing the chorus, but clearly Thorn had messed up somewhere in the last verse. She could hear her bandmates singing in unison and realized that she was not synchronized with them. In fact, she was a bit behind them. Thorn rushed through the last lyric of the chorus to match her friends' pacing.

Beep!

 _What now?_ Thorn grimaced as she clenched her guitar tighter and she felt the pick bend as she played.

"Thorn, slow it down a bit. You're singing too fast," Dusk said.

"She's getting near, she's almost here," Thorn sang as she slowed her singing.

The final chorus began.

"It's the witch's ghost!"

Beep!

 _Fuck!_ The pick snapped. Thorn dropped the broken pick and quickly switched over to playing the guitar with her fingers.

Beep!

 _I know I broke the damn pick!_ She wanted to scream that thought so badly. As she sang, she glanced over to Dusk and Luna. They looked just as frustrated as she did. _Just a few more lines left,_ Thorn reassured herself as the chorus ended.

"We got a problem," the three girls sang.

 _Yeah, we sure as hell have a problem_.

"We got a problem," the band continued, this time quieter than before.

The girls sang the lyric five more times before the song ended, after which Thorn sighed with relief.

"What was that all about?" Luna asked through the earpiece.

Thorn turned to Dusk and Luna. The black-haired girl mouthed the word "later" and turned back to the crowd. She looked down and sighed. _I can't keep doing this_. Performing, sure, she could play on stage all night long if she needed to, but to fight against her own mind was something beyond her. It had already affected her performance and further screwing up the show after having one cancelled wouldn't be good for them. Thorn didn't want to jeopardize her and her friend's career because of her personal issues.

The guitarist looked back up at the crowd. They were applauding and cheering, though not as passionately as before. From the stage, she could see several rows of smiling and happy faces waiting for her to introduce the next song. Thorn smiled. _I can't let them down either_. No more fighting reality.

Thorn grabbed the microphone.

"So what did we think of the witch?" Thorn asked the crowd which responded with applause.

Thorn smiled.

"Well, she'll be playing a few more songs for you all tonight," Thorn said.

As the crowd cheered even louder than before, it was as if a weight was lifted from her shoulders. She could focus without racing thoughts for the first time that night. Thorn glanced back at her friends. Dusk had a giant grin on her face and winked at Thorn, while Luna gave her nod of approval.

Thorn turned her attention back to the crowd.

"Our next song goes out to some friends of ours who helped us with a ghost," Thorn paused to allow the crowd to cheer. "Here's to those meddlin' kids!"

* * *

Thorn let out an exhausted sigh as she leaned up against the wall of the dressing room. She kicked off her heels and rubbed her sore foot. _Hard to believe I used to walk around in these all the time._ She sighed again as she made her way over to a fridge and pulled out a cold bottle of water. She removed the cap and chugged half the bottle.

"You did a good job performing tonight," Luna complimented.

Thorn finished the water bottle and turned to Luna. She was still in her purple coat and skirt from the performance, though she had removed her necklace and hoop earrings.

"Thanks," Thorn said as she took off her gloves. "You were great too."

Luna nodded and there was a brief silence.

"So," the redhead began. "'The Witch's Ghost.'"

Thorn sighed. She knew it was only a matter of time before Luna brought up the song.

"Yeah, not my best moment on stage," she admitted with a shrug.

Luna smirked.

"Considering everything on your mind, I'm surprised you only had issues with just that song," Luna replied. "But that's not what I'm talking about."

"Oh," Thorn feigned surprise. "What are you talking about then?"

"She's talking about how you finally admitted that you're a witch," a voice shouted from behind.

Luna and Thorn turned around to see Dusk walking by them to the shower. She was dressed in a simple t-shirt and a pair of shorts while she had a towel draped across her neck.

"Hey, do you mind not butting into our conversation," Thorn shot back.

"It's not a private conversation if I could hear it from back there," Dusk riposted.

While she was annoyed that Dusk blurted out the obvious, Thorn admitted to herself that it made speaking about the sensitive topic easier.

"Thanks Dusk," Luna said to defuse the situation.

"Glad to be of service," the blonde said with a slight bow as she disappeared into the showers.

"Anyways," Luna said with an awkward pause. "What Dusk was saying…"

"Don't worry about it," Thorn said raising her hand. "That was just a gimmick for the show."

Luna raised an eyebrow. "You're a terrible liar," she said.

Thorn turned to the counter and caught sight of her reflection in the mirror. She sighed.

"Look, I'm still not a hundred percent on board with this witch thing, but I don't know how else to explain the things I've done," Thorn said.

Thorn looked at her reflection for a moment before turning back to Luna. She needed to tell Luna her next course of action.

"And the only way I'm going to get an answer is by going Albany," the black-haired girl exclaimed.

Luna shook her head in disbelief.

"You can't seriously be thinking about going there. We have no idea what's even there," Luna responded.

"Luna I'm sorry, but I'm going to Albany and there is nothing you or anyone else could say to change my mind," Thorn affirmed.

"But there's no way in hell Gus is going to let you leave," Luna replied.

"When has that ever stopped us from going somewhere before?" Thorn remarked with a shrug.

Luna sighed.

"It's too dangerous to go. You could get hurt or worse…" Luna said trailing off into silence.

Thorn looked to the ground for a moment in hesitation. She sighed.

"I know," Thorn said looking back up at Luna. "But I need answers Luna. If getting answers means putting myself in harm's way, then that's a risk I'm willing to take."

"But…" Luna said, shaking her head.

"I'm leaving after I change," Thorn interrupted. "And I'm going alone. I don't want to put you and Dusk in danger again."

Thorn looked back at the ground. As much as she wanted her friends to come with her, she couldn't live with herself if something happened to them because of her. She almost got Dusk and Luna killed last night because of her actions and Thorn realized that she never apologized to them. Her stomach turned at the realization that she was so caught up in her own personal conflict that she failed to see how her friends felt.

"Look, I'm sor…." Thorn began.

"Sally, you're insane," Luna hastily said between quick breaths. "You're not going anywhere alone."

Thorn was taken back, she couldn't remember the last time Luna called by her actual name and the black-haired girl didn't know how to respond. Mouth agape, she simply stared at Luna in complete shock.

"When Dusk gets out the shower, all three of us are going to talk about this," Luna said as she walked past Thorn, her tone serious yet filled with disappointment.

Thorn sighed as she watched her friend walk off into another room. Thorn bit her lip and turned to the mirror above the counter. She glared at her reflection.

"Damnit!" she shouted.

The mirror cracked and splintered before shattering into hundreds of tiny pieces of glass that rained down onto the counter. Thorn gasped and took a few steps back as the glass spilled onto the floor. Thorn glanced at the broken mirror and shook her head in confusion. She stormed off toward a changing room, her mind torn between finding answers and her friends.


	8. Into the Unknown

"I still can't believe you were going to run off by yourself to find some crazy cult," Luna said, crossing her arms.

Dusk simply leaned against the wall with her arms crossed and looked at Thorn with disappointment.

Thorn sat slumped in a chair and merely stared at the ground in silence.

"What if you went to this place and got hurt or worse?" Luna asked. "What if you never came back from that place? How do you think our fans will react to that? How do you think Dusk and I will take it?"

Thorn's face reddened. She fidgeted in her seat, adjusted her clothes that didn't need adjusting and continued to avoid looking at her friends. After a few awkward moments, she sighed and looked up at her friends.

"I'm sorry. I didn't think this through," Thorn confessed.

"Hmph. No kidding," Luna responded.

Thorn hesitated for a moment. She recognized that Luna's anger and frustration with her was absolutely justified. She had no plans and no idea what would happen if she went to Albany by herself. But that wasn't the worst of it. Thinking about Luna's words made her feel uneasy.  _ How could I have been so selfish?  _ She mentally asked herself that question several times but had no answer. She glanced away from her friends in an attempt to mitigate the discomfort, yet it seemed to do the opposite. She looked around the room, never looking at any one spot for more than a second until she spotted the shattered mirror. Like a relentless weed growing in her mind, thoughts of witches, magic and the inscribed object resurfaced. Thorn shook her head but the thoughts kept coming back.

"Luna, Dusk, I'm really sorry," Thorn began as she stood up. "But I need to know what I am."

The black-haired girl pointed at the broken mirror.

"How the hell was I able to shatter the mirror without touching it or anything else?" Thorn exclaimed. "How was I able to get that object to show us the coordinates? What about that green barrier-thingy I made or whatever it was I threw at the ghost?"

Luna was silent. The keyboardist rubbed her head and sighed as she looked away from Thorn. Thorn knew she had no answer. But in the corner of her eye, she caught sight of Dusk smirking.

"What's so funny?" Thorn said while pouting.

"Nothing," Dusk stated. "But we already know you did those things with magic."

"Um, well, how come I was never able to do any magic before last night?" Thorn responded with what was perhaps the question that haunted her the most.

Dusk stopped leaning against the wall and walked to Thorn.

"No idea," Dusk said with a shrug. "But we're going to find out."

Luna quickly stepped forward and cut Dusk off.

"No, don't even say it," Luna demanded.

Dusk smirked. "Oh yeah," she began. "We're all going to Albany."

"Wait. You're serious?" Thorn asked with a slight smile.

"Hell yeah," Dusk cheered.

"But it's too dangerous for you to go," Thorn said as her smile diminished.

"Oh please, now you sound like Luna," Dusk said, waving her hand. "I've been to parties that were more dangerous than anything those masked freaks could do to us. Besides, we already survived two ghosts, what else could possibly happen."

Thorn smiled at her friend's willingness to venture into the unknown with her.

"You're both insane," Luna sighed as she took a few steps away from Dusk and Thorn.

Dusk and Thorn turned to Luna, the former taking a few steps toward the redhead.

"Come on Kim! She needs to go," Dusk said, raising her hands in the air.

"But it's too dangerous," Luna affirmed, though it sounded more like a plea than her standing her ground.

Dusk rolled her eyes. "Can you quit it with the 'it's too dangerous', I've heard it too many times already."

"But it's true," Luna muttered and Thorn noticed the slight hint of fear in her voice.

"Oh come on!" Dusk shouted. "What makes you think it's safe here? What if Thorn accidentally goes all Carrie on someone or turns someone into a frog or some other crazy shit! She needs to go to Albany and learn more about her powers. Going there with her is the only way we can help her and make sure she's safe."

Thorn flinched and even Luna seemed taken back by Dusk's comments.  _ I could actually hurt somebody _ Thorn thought for the first time and shuddered. She glanced over to Dusk and Luna. _ What if I hurt them or k…? _ Thorn closed her eyes and shook her head.  _ Don't even think that.  _ But the thought lingered and Thorn felt queasy.  _ No, I won't let that happen.  _ Thorn opened her eyes, took a deep breath and slowly exhaled _. A Wiccan does not hurt or kill people and I will not let myself do either to anyone. _

"Dusk's right," Thorn said as she walked between the two. "I'm a danger to everyone around me. Including you two."

Dusk and Luna both opened their mouths as if they were about to say something but didn't.

"I need to go to those coordinates and learn how to deal with whatever it is I have," she continued.

She glanced over to Dusk. "You're still going to come with me, aren't you?" Thorn asked with a half-smile.

"You bet," the blonde replied.

Thorn turned to Luna. The keyboardist nervously glanced around the room for a few moments before sighing.

"Fine, I'll go," Luna said with reluctance. "But can we at least take some time to prepare ourselves?"

Thorn nodded. "Thanks Luna," she said before turning slightly so she could also address Dusk. "Pack whatever you think we might need and we'll meet at the back entrance in fifteen minutes."

Dusk nodded before hurrying off into another room with an almost child-like excitement. Thorn smiled as she watched her friend vanish into the other room.

"I have a bad feeling about this," Luna sighed before she parted ways from Thorn and headed toward the door.

As Luna exited the room, Thorn turned and headed to the back of the dressing room to gather some things. But as she made her way to her bags, she thought about Luna's concerns. She shook her head and ignored those thoughts. She was ever closer to getting the answers she so desperately craved and she wasn't going to let a few negative thoughts stop her.

* * *

A cool breeze blew through the performance center parking lot causing Thorn to button up her jacket as she stood outside the back entrance. She took out her red-and-black phone and read the time—11:12 PM. She sighed as she returned her phone to her purse and peered through the tinted glass doors. All she saw was an empty hallway with a single ceiling light that flickered. Thorn frowned and turned away from the door.

"Where are they?" she sighed as she took out her phone and checked the time again; still 11:12 PM.

"Ugh," Thorn groaned as she slid the phone back into her purse.

The Wiccan leaned against the building and gazed out into the night. Numerous street lights illuminated the parking lot and revealed that there were plenty of cars still around. Thorn took another glance at the doors. She half-expected them to swing open, but nothing happened. She groaned and checked her phone for a third time. But as she was putting her phone away, she heard some footsteps from inside the building. She smiled as the doors opened and out came Dusk and Luna.

"Alright, let's get this started," Dusk said rubbing her hands together before turning to Thorn. "So what's the plan?"

"Yeah Thorn, what exactly is your plan?" Luna said, crossing her arms.

Thorn hesitated for a moment as she glared at Luna. The redhead was still clearly upset about this whole impromptu trip.

"Well, I texted Gus that we were going into town to celebrate a successful, last minute performance and he was fine with that," Thorn explained.

"Okay, so how do we get there? Not exactly like we could take the tour bus for a ride. I'm sure the studio would love that," Luna said almost condescendingly.

"Pfft. It's pretty simple. We'll just get a cab," Thorn said.

Luna gave a dismissive chuckle. "That's good. And if we have to split because this cult tries to sacrifice us or something, we'll just call a cab and wait the ten, fifteen, minutes for it to show up. Hopefully nothing bad happens during that time."

Thorn grimaced and quickly swore under her breath. As much as it annoyed her, Luna had a point. If things headed south, they needed a car they could get to immediately; waiting for someone else to arrive wouldn't work.

Thorn looked out into the parking lot and groaned at seeing so many cars just sitting right in front of her, yet they might as well have been miles away. Thorn sighed as her plan fell apart by such a simple thing as lack of transportation. But as she looked out into the parking lot, some commotion by one car parked on the edge of the lot by the woods caught her attention. She could see several people standing around the back of the car laughing, talking and—more importantly—drinking, quite a bit based on how many cans were littered at their feet.

"I know how we're going to get a car," Thorn said with a grin as she walked over to the group.

Thorn hurried across the parking with Luna and Dusk close behind her. They quickly neared the group, who were completely oblivious to the girls. As they got closer, Thorn saw that the group consisted of three girls and two guys and a few of them were wearing Hex Girls themed clothes, likely merchandise they picked up after the concert. Thorn also noted a couple coolers and confirmed that they were indeed drinking cheap beer. Getting closer, Thorn winced as she caught the strong scent of weed coming from the group. Yet she kept walking and until she was only a few yards away.

"Holy shit! It's the Hex Girls!" one of the girls cheered causing the others to turn their attention to the band.

"In the flesh," Thorn said with a smile.

"It's like, killer to meet you three," another girl stuttered as she tried to get up from a lawn chair but fell back into it laughing.

"It's killer to meet you too," Thorn said, trying her best to keep calm in the awkward moment.

"Hey, you girls want some hash or something?" one of the guys mumbled.

"Uh, yes," Dusk chimed in as she tried to walk past Thorn.

Thorn frowned and jabbed Dusk with her elbow.

"What was that for?" Dusk asked, rubbing her side.

But Thorn just gave her a stern look. The blonde realized her mistake and reluctantly turned down the guy's offer. With that minor distraction dealt with, Thorn turned her attention toward the car and promptly sighed. The vehicle was in pretty rough shape; the dull blue body was covered in scratches and dents, the antennae for the radio was snapped off, one of the rear taillights was busted and the front bumper was held together with duct tape. It certainly wasn't anything Thorn would've been caught driving in under normal circumstances, but she was desperate and the car could (hopefully) get the three of them to where they needed to be.

Thorn tapped the roof of the car and turned to the group once me.

"So, whose ride is this?" Thorn asked.

"Oh, um uh, mine," the second guy proclaimed as he stumbled to the front of the car, his face bright red.

"It's such a nice car," Thorn lied with a smile as she walked around to the front of the car.

"Oh yeah thanks," the guy said as he leaned up against the hood of his car. "I…I do all the uh work myself."

"Is that so?" Thorn said with feigned interest she took a few steps closer to the car's owner.

"Yeah, I um j…just got the um uh…," the poor guy started but the rest of what he said came out as an incoherent mess of slurred sounds.

"That's nice," Thorn said as she placed her hand on the guys trembling hand. "But I need to ask a favor of you."

The man gulped. His face was even redder than before and Thorn felt that his hand was quite tense. With his other hand, he wiped his forehead.

"Um what do you uh want," he asked, his words barely coherent.

"Dusk, Luna and I need to pick something up in Albany but our manager won't let us go," Thorn said, feigning sadness. "So we were wondering if we could borrow your car."

"Umm…" the guy mumbled.

Thorn sighed. The car owner was no longer listening and was blatantly checking her out. Thorn rolled her eyes and pulled her hand away from his. _ This isn't getting me anywhere _ .

"Listen dude, I need to borrow your car now," Thorn said, snapping her fingers in the guy's face.

The guy blinked repeatedly.

"What? Oh um, I dunno," the guy said while rubbing his head and turning his attention toward the car.

"Let 'em use your car," one of the drunk girls interjected. "We were gonna leave it here overnight anyways, cause Jill is gonna pick us up."

Thorn smiled.

"Hear that, Jill is going to pick you all up," Thorn said. "Now why don't you give me the car keys, then grab another beer and relax till Jill arrives. I'll have your car back here in the morning."

"Yeah," the guy said as he started nodding.

"Yeah," Thorn said. "Now get the keys."

The guy kept nodding and stumbled over to a backpack laying on the ground. He fumbled through it for a minute before retrieving the car keys. He went back to Thorn and handed her the keys.

"Don't get, like, pulled over or something," the guy said, slurring his words.

"Oh thank you, you're the best," Thorn said giving the guy a brief hug. He then walked back to his friends smiling.

Thorn called for Luna and Dusk, who were partially listening to the drunk girls talk, before running over to the driver's side of the car. She opened the door and jumped into the driver's seat. She quickly started up the car as Luna got into the passenger seat, still level-headed as usual, while Dusk entered the back of the car in a fit of laughter.

"What's so funny?" Thorn asked as she backed out the parking spot.

"Hehehe. You just stole some drunk guy's car!" Dusk laughed.

"I did NOT steal his car," Thorn said, raising her voice. "He said I could borrow it!"

"Eh, whatever you say Thorn," Dusk said as she wiped a tear from her eye.

"I didn't steal anything," Thorn insisted as she turned onto the main road.

"I hate to burst your bubble but Dusk is right, you stole this car," Luna stated.

Thorn gripped the steering wheel tightly and grimaced. She went to defend herself but Luna quickly cut her off.

"Yes, you stole the car. That guy was clearly under the influence and couldn't actually consent to giving you the car. So you took advantage of him and stole his car," Luna concluded.

"I…" Thorn began.

She was at a loss for words. She shook her head as she looked down the road. She slowed the car to a stop as she reached a red light. She then turned to Luna.

"I'm going to return it when we get back," she said to Luna, but it sounded like it was more to herself than to her friend.

"It doesn't matter, you stole a car. I just hope we get back before he sobers up and he doesn't remember any of this," Luna said.

In the back seat, Dusk continued to laugh as she rummaged through whatever stuff was in the back. Luna quickly turned around.

"Dusk this isn't funny," Luna angrily said.

"Yeah it is," Dusk retorted. "Cause Thorn's the last person I would've thought would steal a car."

"And that's not concerning you?" Luna said.

Thorn listened to them argue about her actions. True, it wasn't her proudest moment and it wasn't something she'd ordinarily do, but at the moment it was the only way she could think of to get a vehicle. As the argument dragged on, Thorn wanted to end and the more she heard, angrier she got. After a few minutes she finally snapped.

"Will you two just shut up and drop this!" Thorn shouted.

The two girls quickly stopped speaking and were taken back by Thorn's outrage. Even the Wiccan herself was startled by her own outburst. Thorn closed her eyes, took a deep breath and slowly exhaled.  _ No. This is going too far. Calm down. Don't let anything happen _ . She reopened her eyes and resumed driving when the light turned green.

"I'm sorry," Thorn quietly said just audibly enough for her friends to hear.

The car remained silent. Thorn attempted to turn on the radio, but remembered that car's antenna was missing. She sighed and glanced over to Luna. The keyboardist was leaning back in her seat and stared out the window.

"Luna…" Thorn began.

But Luna adjusted herself so that her back was partially turned to Thorn. Thorn sighed as she glanced around the front of the car looking for something to diffuse the tension.

"Dusk, did you find anything neat back there?" Thorn asked.

Thorn heard a bag tear open followed by the crunching of chips.

"Hey, Luna want some chips?" Dusk asked while offering her the bag.

"I'm good thanks," the redhead replied without looking away from the window.

Dusk went back to munching on the snack she found. Hearing the chips crunch made Thorn's stomach rumble; she hadn't eaten since before the concert.

"Hey, can I get some chips?" Thorn asked.

Aside from the crinkling of the bag and Dusk chewing, there was no response. Thorn frowned but after a moment, the chewing stopped and a small smile spread across her face.

"Sick. There's a bottle of vodka. I'll save that for later," Dusk commented before grabbing another handful of chips.

Thorn's smile faded as she returned her attention back to the road. Everything was already going badly and they had barely left the parking lot. Thorn sighed. This was going to be a long and tense drive.

* * *

Indeed, the silence was overwhelming. For the entire hour long trip, there was nothing but the occasional jolt from the car as it hit a pothole. No joke, no sarcastic comment, no insightful conversation. And Thorn hated every second of it. It was a torment of her own making as the silence said more than what any words could ever express. Yet even here, Thorn reassured herself that what she would find in the arcane and esoteric would make up for her actions. But as she took the exit off the interstate and her destination lay only a few miles away, she felt unsure of herself; a tiny nagging voice in the back of her mind asking if she was making the right choice.

* * *

The car bumped along a gravel road until it stopped at the corner of a metal gate. Thorn exited the car and put the keys in her purse. As the car lights went off, Thorn was taken back by how dark it was; the dense tree cover blocked out what little moonlight there was and if it wasn't for a single light above the gate's entrance, it'd be too dark to see her hand right in front of her face.

"So, this is it, huh," Dusk said, finally breaking the silence between the girls.

"I guess so," Thorn replied.

Thorn took a deep breath and walked to the gate, Luna and Dusk right behind her. After a few minutes, they stood under the iridescent light.

"So, how do we get in?" Dusk asked.

Thorn looked around the gate and noticed what she thought was a box on one of the posts. Closer inspection revealed that it was an intercom station.

"Uh, hello," Thorn said as she pressed the single button on the intercom.

"Take three steps back from the gate and face the camera," a loud voice commanded causing the three girls to jump back.

The Hex Girls took three steps back as instructed. Thorn looked around the gate to find the camera but couldn't spot it.

"It's above the intercom," Luna bluntly stated, though Thorn couldn't shake the feeling that there was hostility in her tone.

Thorn blushed as both her friends were waiting on her to complete the instructions. Indeed, on the top of the railing above the intercom was a small, nondescript camera aimed right at them; the blinking red light was the only way she even spotted it.

"Identify yourselves and your purpose for being here," the voice over the intercom ordered.

Thorn hesitated. She glanced over to Dusk and Luna half expecting them to answer the question. Luna raised an eyebrow.

"This is all you," the redhead coldly said.

Thorn looked at the camera. "I'm Thorn. This is Dusk and Luna," the Wiccan said gesturing to her friends.

She paused again and gulped.

"We're here because of, um, this," she said as she pulled out the object with the coordinates from her purse and held it up to the camera.

Whoever was on the other side of the intercom didn't respond. There was static coming from the intercom confirming that it was still on. She turned to her friends but they just shrugged.

"So you three are witches then, correct?" the voice unexpectedly resumed.

"No, I'm not a witch," Luna quickly corrected.

"Me neither," Dusk added.

Both girls immediately stared at Thorn. The black-haired girl nervously murmured to herself as all eyes (and camera lens) were on her. She bit her lip as her eyes darted back and forth between her friends and the camera. Her body tensed up as she was forced to confront the accumulation of two days' worth of turmoil and finally face the truth. With a heavy sigh, Thorn looked into the camera lens and said the three words she never thought she'd say.

"I'm a witch."

With that there were no more lies and no more denial. The truth was out and there was no going back; no way to backpedal like she did after the concert. Thorn sighed as her body relaxed. She felt, for the first time since Shardon, sure of herself.

"FINALLY," Dusk said while raising her hands. "This whole self-denial shit was getting really annoying."

Thorn feigned a laugh and blushed.

The gate buzzed as the mechanical gate slowly swung open, bringing Thorn out of her thoughts.

"Proceed to the building and enter through the door. You will await further instructions once inside. Failure to oblige will result in immediate termination," the speaker said before the intercom went silent.

With the answers to her questions within reach, Thorn passed through the gate and hurried toward the building.

"I don't like the sound of 'immediate termination' if we don't listen to these people," Luna said as she begrudgingly followed Thorn.

"We'll be fine," Thorn replied, completely ignoring the fact that the gate was closing behind them. Nothing was going to scare her away from getting her answers.

After a short walk, the black-haired girl was the first to arrive at the building. With its chipping paint, crumbling roof and cracked brick walls covered in a tangle of Poison Ivy and Virginia Creeper, one could easily mistake the single-story building for being abandoned had it not been for a lone flickering light over a rust covered door. Dusk even joked that the building was perfect for a cult.

With a slight push, Thorn opened the door and had to briefly shield her eyes. The room they entered was white and everything was polished to the point where the ceiling lights gleamed off the surfaces and blanketed the room in a blinding light. After a minute or so, Thorn's eyes adjusted to the increased light levels and she noticed that the room was empty; no windows, doors, furniture or any other discernible features.

"Okay, this isn't what I expected," Thorn said as she tried to spot some feature in vast whiteness.

"Yeah, I'm surprised this wasn't some dark candlelit room with a bunch of hooded guys chanting in a circle," Dusk joked.

Thorn chuckled to herself as the three of them continued deeper into the featureless room.

THUD!

"Ow!" Thorn shouted as she stumbled backwards.

The black-haired girl rubbed her forehead and looked at where she had just walked. To her surprise, there was nothing there, even though it felt like she had just walked face-first into a brick wall.

"What the hell was that?" Dusk asked as she and Luna had walked past Thorn without incident.

"I don't know," Thorn said, still reeling from the incident.

Thorn raised her hand and slowly approached the spot she couldn't pass. Her eyes widened as she felt an external force press up against her hand. Confused, she tried pushing against the force but this only made the force push back against her harder. She swiped her hands across the force looking for a switch or something similar but there was nothing. Her heart raced as she moved toward the walls, but no matter where she tried to proceed farther into the room, she encountered the unseen force.

"I can't get through," Thorn gasped.

"What's stopping you?" Dusk asked as she walked over to Thorn.

"I don't know," Thorn replied.

Dusk and Luna walked over to where Thorn was trying to cross. Dusk waved her hand just inches from Thorn's face and nothing happened. The blonde took a step to the side of Thorn and jumped over the spot without incident.

"There's nothing there," Dusk stated.

Luna stepped over the spot and confirmed Dusk's statement.

"What exactly do you feel blocking you?" Luna asked.

"Nothing! I don't feel anything," Thorn exclaimed. "It's like I'm being pushed away by something."

Luna looked over the ground for a moment before shrugging in defeat. Thorn dropped to her knees and combed over the floor with her hands. She wanted to find something. A button. A crack. An engraved symbol. Anything to explain why she couldn't go farther into the room. After a few minutes, she sat on the floor and sighed.

"After everything I went through, I'm stopped by something I can't even see," Thorn said, her face turning red.

"Hey," Dusk said as she sat down next to Thorn. "I know this sucks and all, but we'll figure it out. I mean, we did solve that stone thing."

Thorn's eyes widened and a smile spread across her face.

"Dusk, you're a genius," Thorn exclaimed as she stood up.

"Um, Okay. Thanks," Dusk said she turned to see what Thorn was up.

The black-haired girl stood a little over arm's reach away from the force. She raised her hand and focused on the empty floor. She took a deep breath.

"Revēlō!" Thorn shouted.

Thorn smiled as she watched a small blueish-white glow appear on the part of the floor she had focused on. The glow lengthened into a straight line no more than a few inches in length, gradually extending until it reached the two walls. Upon hitting the walls, there was a bright flash of blue light.

"Unbelievable," Thorn said as the light dissipated.

Before her eyes was what she could only describe as a clear 'wall' that shimmered in the artificial light from the ceiling. Shifting gleams of refracted light appeared and disappeared as they drifted across the 'wall' like clouds moving across the sky. Thorn reached out and placed her hand on the 'wall'. Like before, she felt the force pushing back on her hand. She smiled. While she still couldn't get through the barrier, she made progress.

"This is pretty cool," Dusk laughed as she stood in the middle of the barrier. "It doesn't affect me."

"Yeah, now I just have to get over," Thorn chuckled as she watched her friends.

Suddenly, the barrier flickered several times before it disappeared entirely.

"What did you two do?" Luna asked with much concern. The redhead was trembling

"Nothing," Thorn replied.

But as the bewildered guitarist looked to the back of the room, she saw an unseen door slide open. Her heart skipped a beat as she saw an individual enter the room. The figure was dressed identically to Matella; the pointed hat suggested that the figure was a mage. The figure took a few steps forward and another similarly dressed individual stepped out. But what came after caused Thorn to start backing up. Three more figures entered the room clad in black ballistics vests and shoulder pads embellished with gold and crimson markings, dark gray military slacks, black combat boots and an intimidating black helmet and visor. But more worrisome, all three of them were armed with assault rifles that were pointed at the three musicians.

"We're dead," cried Luna as she got on her knees while Dusk tried to get her up.

Upon seeing Luna surrender, Thorn froze. Her body trembled, her heart was pounding and she struggled to catch her breath. Time itself seemed to move slower as the guards neared her friends. She watched as the armed cultists shouted for the two girls to not move and keep their hands raised all the while keeping the rifles aimed at them. The shouts echoed in her head and instinct took over. Fight or flight. Get away or defend her friends. A simultaneously simple yet complex choice she didn't even have to think about making. She didn't notice her hands clenching into a fist and the dark blue light emitting from them. She didn't notice herself running nor did she notice herself raising her arm to throw the blue bolt of magic. Unfortunately for her, she also didn't notice the warlock who was well aware of her.

"Capiō!"

The warlock's shout broke Thorn's focus and she gasped when she became aware of both what she was about to do and the warlock. But it was too late. Two green rings formed around Thorn; one around her midriff and the other around her legs. The upper ring quickly contracted and pinned her arms to her sides and caused the energy bolt to fade away before she could throw it. Thorn felt the second ring pin her legs together. She promptly fell to the floor from her own momentum.

"You were ordered to wait for instructions when inside," the warlock said looking down at Thorn. "And under normal circumstances I would not hesitate to kill you three."

Thorn scowled at the masked warlock and grunted as she rolled onto her side in a vain attempt to escape.

"Hehe. You're lucky one of the higher ups is expecting you," he concluded.

He turned to one of the armed guards.

"You three take the blonde and the redhead in for processing," the warlock ordered. "We'll process the witch."

"Understood sir," one of the guards said before turning to Dusk and Luna. "Alright get up! Keep your hands above your head and start walking!"

Thorn could only watch as Dusk and Luna were escorted to the door.

"No!" Thorn shouted as her friends disappeared into the darkness.

Thorn tried again to break free, but the magic coils were too strong. All she managed to do was wiggle around a bit and fall back onto her stomach.

"If you three had just followed directions, none of this would've happened," the warlock said kneeling down in front of Thorn. "But no, you had to disrupt the barrier and needlessly complicate things."

"If you bastards even think of hurting them I'll…" Thorn yelled before stopping at the realization of what she was going to say wasn't very Wiccan of her.

"You'll what, kill me? Please. You're not the first person to threaten me," he said with a dismissive chuckle. "Now assuming they don't do anything stupid, the blonde and redhead will be fine."

Thorn just glared at the warlock as he got up.

"We're going to bring you into processing. Let's make this easy so you don't end up dead as I really don't want to deal with a pissed off Matella," he explained.

With a wave of his hand, the green coil around Thorn's legs vanished. The second warlock helped her to her feet.

"You'll lose the second coil when we get to processing," the main warlock said. "Now follow me."

Without much of a choice, Thorn followed the warlock through the door and farther into the building.


	9. Processing

"Ugh, how much farther does this tunnel go?" Dusk groaned. They'd been walking down a dark tunnel for at least ten, maybe fifteen minutes. Dusk noticed that they were descending downward, suggesting that they were heading underground.

"Quiet," the guard behind her ordered.

"I'm just asking a simple question," Dusk retorted.

"Quiet!"

Dusk stumbled forward with a grunt as the guard hit her back with the stock of the rifle.

"Oh screw you asshole!" the blonde shouted as her hands clenched into fists and she was ready to punch the guard in the face.

Whack!

The second strike nearly sent Dusk crashing into Luna, but the blonde managed to keep her balance and regain her footing.

"Jane, please stop," Luna whimpered.

Dusk sighed. If it was just her, she would've made those guards drag her kicking and screaming all the way to processing. But it wasn't just her being escorted by armed cultists down an underground tunnel to whatever processing was. Luna was shaking and struggling to hold back tears and Dusk knew she was near the breaking point. Dusk gritted her teeth and said nothing as she turned her back to the guard.

After an extended period of time, the tunnel ended at a door and the girls were ordered to stop. One of the front guards punched a code into a keypad and the door opened with a loud mechanical buzz. Once the door had opened, the guard ordered the two girls to enter the room.

_ Un-fucking-believable _ Dusk thought as she looked at her new surroundings in disappointment.

Rather than a macabre ceremonial chamber covered in ancient symbols or some sacrificial room with a bloody altar in the center, what lay before them was a much mundane scene: Two masked cultists stood behind a small counter that was adjacent to a walkthrough metal detector in a dull, whitewashed room. They gestured for an unmasked cultist to place a bin containing his mask and a few other belongings onto the counter before going through the metal detector himself. His items were searched before being returned to the cultist. The guards then gestured for the girls to approach the security checkpoint.

"Please remove any jewelry, electronics and metal objects and place them in the trays," a masked woman said from behind the counter.

Luna and Dusk each grabbed a tray.

"This is stupid," Dusk muttered to herself as she emptied her pockets and placed what little miscellaneous items she had into the tray.

"Can you please not do anything to get us killed," Luna begged.

Dusk said nothing as she shuffled toward the metal detector. She glanced back to Luna; the redhead was still shaking from their current predicament and she was nervously eyeing the armed guards surrounding them. Dusk sighed and turned to the metal detector.  _ Fuck _ the blonde thought as she begrudgingly knelt down and rolled up her pant leg revealing a strap and sheath just above her ankle. She undid a small clip and pulled out a small fixed blade knife. She looked at the knife for a moment then turned to Luna before finally placing the knife in the tray.

"Do you have any other weapons on you?" a guard asked while raising his firearm.

Dusk shook her head. She didn't have any weapons, but she did have a few smoke pellets up her sleeve. She didn't want to scare Luna any further or have them confiscated so she kept quiet about them.

The guard motioned for her to step through the metal detector and she went through without incident. Dusk turned around and Luna too made it through without any problems. The two girls were ordered to wait outside a door that was just past the counter.

"Why do you even have that?" Luna anxiously whispered as she gestured over to the knife the cultists were looking over.

"Cause I was expecting killer cultists, not the fucking TSA," Dusk whispered back.

"So what, were you going to fight them or something?" the redhead replied.

"If I needed to," Dusk confessed.

Luna shook her head and turned away from Dusk. The blonde sighed and leaned up against the wall adjacent to the door. Fortunately for Dusk, she didn't have to wait very long in the awkward silence between her and Luna as the door opened and they were ordered inside.

The room was small with the only furniture being a desk, chair, a photocopier and a few assorted filing cabinets. A cultist sat behind the desk working on a computer.

"Stand on the 'X', face forward and keep a straight face," the cultist behind the desk said without looking away from the computer.

Dusk looked at the ground and noticed a white 'X' painted by the wall. She walked over to the spot and stood facing the desk.

"So what are you going to do now, shoot u…"a sudden bright flash of light interrupted Dusk; she blinked several times before being told to step aside.

She stepped away from the 'X' and Luna took her spot. Dusk watched as Luna had her photograph taken. The redhead was still shaking and sniffling, though she was not as badly as before.  _ At least she's calming down _ Dusk thought. But as this was happening, Dusk heard the door open and a second cultist walked in carrying the trays containing the girls' belongings.  _ Ah shit _ Dusk thought as she noticed that the second cultist handed over their driver's licenses to the cultist on the computer; the notion of remaining anonymous quickly evaporated as the cultist photocopied the licenses.

After a minute or so, the cultist finished with the licenses and tossed them into the trays.

"You may retrieve your belongings," the second cultist said.

The two girls grabbed the contents of the trays. Dusk immediately noticed that her knife was missing.

"Hey, where's my knife?" Dusk demanded.

"No unauthorized weapons are permitted beyond this point," the cultist from behind the computer said.

Dusk grimaced. "Oh come on! What am I going to do with it against those armed guards and whatever magic shit you guys have!?" she shouted.

The two cultists turned to each and shrugged after a few moments.

"Fine. But draw it and you'll be shot on sight," the second cultist said as he handed the knife back to Dusk.

Dusk smirked as she retrieved her knife. While it was true she probably couldn't do much with it against a witch or one of the armed guards, but having it made her feel safer. She briefly twirled the knife with her fingers like it was one of her drumsticks before returning it to its sheath. She turned to Luna and noticed her frowning. Dusk quickly mouthed sorry but Luna paid her no attention and just walked past her as the cultists told them to exit the room. Dusk sighed and followed Luna out of the room.

"Ah, there you two are," a familiar voice said from down the hall. "Luna and Dusk if I recall correctly."

Dusk turned to the voice and saw Matella approaching them. The witch quickly reached the two musicians and removed her mask.

"I'm sorry your arrival here was… unpleasant," Matella said.

"That's one way of putting it," Dusk said. "Your guards are a bunch of assholes."

"We have to take security very seriously as there are many magical and non-magical threats we'd rather not let in here," Matella responded.

"Doesn't mean they have to be dicks all the time," the drummer countered.

Matella chuckled. "Anyhoo, Thorn should be out in a bit; processing witches takes a little longer."

What exactly was involved in the processing of witches, Dusk didn't know but she hoped it was more interesting than what she and Luna went through.

* * *

Even as she was led down the dark corridor to depths unknown by the two warlocks, Thorn still struggled to free herself from her magical restraints. She strained herself against the coil with all her strength yet it wouldn't budge. Grunting, she made one last attempt at breaking the coil before she was stopped at a large door. The lead warlock waved his hand across the door and it opened. The warlock stepped aside and motioned for Thorn to step through.

Thorn hesitated for a moment before stepping through the doorway. Taking up the brunt of the room was a large elevated counter separated from the main floor by a large railing. Various symbols and sigils were inscribed along the counter and walls of the room, though Thorn didn't recognize any of them. Some of them bore resemblance to various Wiccan and Thelemic inscriptions while others were completely alien to anything she'd ever seen.

But amongst the display of esotericism, one symbol stood out to Thorn: overlaid upon a black circle and a forked, crimson saltire was golden oval. In the center of the oval, was a black, crimson and gold sun. The sun was divided into two parts—a black outline with black flames radiating from it and a gold and crimson core that seemed to glow. Looking at the symbol, Thorn shuddered as she realized that it resembled an eye gazing upon the world from the abyss. The room around her seemed to evaporate as all the Wiccan could focus on was the symbol.

"Witch, state your purpose for being here," a female voice shouted.

Thorn flinched and for a moment she thought the eye-like symbol was speaking to her. She blinked and a second shout brought her back to reality. She looked to the source of the voice and saw three masked individuals sitting behind the counter. They were dressed like the warlocks from the entrance.

"I'm here because a witch promised me answers to questions I have about myself," Thorn answered.

"And who exactly promised you answers?" the witch inquired.

"Matella," Thorn replied.

There was some commotion from the three individuals. As the three cultists talked amongst themselves, Thorn glanced around the room. She noted the two warlocks from before were still behind her blocking the door. She also saw several armed guards strategically positioned around the room. The commotion ended and Thorn turned back to the cultists behind the counter

"So you're Thorn then, correct?" a warlock asked.

Thorn nodded.

The warlock who spoke motioned for Thorn to be released. Thorn turned to see the warlock who trapped her wave his hand and the coil around her torso disappeared. Thorn sighed with relief and stretched her arms.

"Are you in possession of any enchanted, cursed, blessed or otherwise magical objects?" the witch asked.

"Umm, yeah," Thorn answered as she tried to reach into her purse to get the inscribed object. But before she could, the witch raised her hand and Thorn's purse was violently snatched away from her by an unseen force. Thorn gasped as her purse flew through the air and into the witch's hand. There, the witch emptied the contents of Thorn's purse onto the counter and the three cultists began examining the items.

"So your legal name is Sally McKnight and you're from Oakhaven, Massachusetts," one of the warlocks said as he looked over her driver's license.

"It's Thorn," the Wiccan corrected as she crossed her arms.

The warlock ignored Thorn and clapped his hands. Thorn's eyes widened in shock as a ghastly white, disembodied hand floated through the air to the warlock who summoned it.

"Get this photocopied," the warlock said as he raised Thorn's ID to the spectral hand.

The hand briefly lowered itself as if it were bowing to its master and snatched the license. Then just as quickly as it arrived, the phantom hand flew off toward a hallway, rounded the corner and was gone.  _ What the hell was that? _ Thorn thought as she tried to peer around the corner to get another glimpse of the floating hand. But with nothing there, Thorn turned her attention back to the cultists and what she saw made her heart stop.

"Stop looking through that!" Thorn yelled as the lead witch went through her journal.

"Is this a spell book?" the witch asked.

"No! It's my journal," Thorn retorted as she took a few steps closer to the counter. "I…I use it for songwriting and for recording herbal remedies."

The witch ignored Thorn and kept flipping through the journal. But after a minute, the witch paused and snickered. Thorn's face turned red and she clenched her fists. The damned bitch was reading something she shouldn't be reading and Thorn wasn't going to let her get away with that.

"Stop reading that!" Thorn shouted. The journal suddenly closed and was yanked out of the witch's grasp. The journal darted through the air and landed in Thorn's hands. She clutched her journal tightly against her chest; nobody was going to get a chance to read her most inner thoughts.

But the relief Thorn felt from retrieving her journal disappeared as the guards aimed their rifles at her and the cultists looked down upon her with annoyance and frustration; one of the warlock's hands erupted into flames.

"Umm…nobody…looks through my…um journal" Thorn stammered before closing her eyes. Her heart was racing as at any moment, she thought, the guards would open fire or the warlock to burn her to a crisp. But after several seconds of fear, she opened a single eye and saw the witch whispering something to the warlock with flaming hands. The warlock chuckled and the flames died down. Puzzled, Thorn watched as the warlock ordered the guards to stand down.

"Okay, we won't read your little diary anymore, but only if you grab the railing," the witch said.

"Uh sure," Thorn said in bewilderment. It was certainly an unexpected request and it seemed like an easy price to pay. She walked over to the railing and paused as she could see the cultists eagerly watching her from above. There had to be something more to this. Thorn looked over the railing but found nothing out of place. No sigils, symbols, inscriptions or marks. She even whispered revēlō, but nothing happened. There was nothing to suggest that it was anything more than an ordinary railing.

Yet Thorn was reluctant to grab the railing as she didn't trust the cultists. But the thought of having them read her journal and laugh at her private thoughts was too much. With a stern look, Thorn grabbed the railing.

"OW!" she screamed as she felt an intense heat scorch her hand, causing her to instinctively recoil from the railing. Still reeling from the pain, she raised her trembling hand to assess the damage. The palm of her hand was completely red from a first degree burn. Thorn bit her lip and scowled at the cultists as they burst into a fit of laughter.

"What the hell is wrong you people!" Thorn snapped, still enduring the pain from the burn.

"Oh relax, it's a silver coated railing. You barely touched it so you'll be fine in a minute," the witch explained as she and her associates calmed down.

Thorn shook her head in disbelief. A burn of this intensity could take anywhere from three to twenty days to heal properly even with treatment. But almost on cue, the pain suddenly subsided and Thorn watched in awe as the redness faded away. All traces of the burn were gone and it was if she was never burnt in the first place.

"That's impossible," Thorn muttered as she opened and closed her hand fully expecting to feel pain but there was nothing. She then remembered the incident on the bus with the silver necklace. Somehow, silver was burning her.

"No wonder you need to find Matella," the masked witch belittled. "You're completely clueless about magic."

Thorn waited for an explanation for what just happened but nobody said anything.

"Since you're naïve enough to touch silver and your only magical possession is the talisman Matella gave you, no further questioning is needed," the witch explained.

"You will step through the metal detector and have your photograph taken. The rest of your items, bar the talisman, will be returned to you after that," one of the warlocks added.

Thorn wasn't sure if she should feel grateful or humiliated, but she didn't get a chance to dwell on it for too long as one of the guards motioned for her to go to the connecting hallway the floating hand had gone down. She walked to the metal detector and went through without complications. Thorn was then brought into a smaller side room where she had her photograph taken. After a few minutes, Thorn's purse was returned to her. A quick check showed that everything minus the talisman was accounted for. The floating hand even reappeared and returned her license. With her belongings in hand, the Wiccan was escorted by a pair of guards down the hall to where Matella, Dusk and Luna were waiting.

* * *

"Thorn!"

Thorn paused as she rounded the corner and heard Dusk call her name. She saw her bandmates and ran to them.

"Are you two alright? They didn't hurt you or anything?" Thorn asked.

"Nah, we're fine. They just took our pictures and looked through our stuff," Dusk replied matter-of-factly. "Though the guards were a bunch of assholes."

Thorn smiled. Dusk seemed to be taking this whole situation well and Thorn was thankful for that. But turning to Luna told a much different story. With her arms crossed, the redhead said nothing to Thorn and simply looked at her with an expression of both frustration and fear. Thorn sighed. She tried to say something to Luna but stopped. Instead, she turned away from the redhead. But looking past Luna, she noticed a third figure standing behind her bandmates.

"You," Thorn said as she pointed to Matella. "You owe me answers."

"I suppose I do," Matella said with a shrug. "Why don't we all go for a short walk?"

"What? No!" Thorn said. "I want my questions answered now!"

"And I will answer them, but not here. There is a better place to discuss these topics just down the hall," Matella explained as she started walking down the hallway.

Thorn grunted and clenched her fists but the witch ignored her and continued down the hall.

"Looks like everyone here is a prick," Dusk joked.

"Tell me about it…" Thorn groaned as she, Dusk and Luna followed the witch.


	10. Answers and Training?

Compared to Processing, the rest of the complex was bustling with activity: masked and unmasked cultists went about their business while armed guards patrolled the hallways. Thorn felt like she was being led through some corporate office building rather than the lair of a cult with rooms labeled "Accounting", "Communications", "IT" and even a small mess hall. Yet there were details that made the complex feel otherworldly: the cultists wearing their sacred masks and garments; rooms with labels like "Enchantments", "Conjurations" and "Divinations'' that whenever Thorn would try to look into, the doors would close on their own and the windows darkened; the eerie eye-like symbol etched on every wall and, she finally noticed, marked the clothing of every cultist. She was so caught up in sights that she almost failed to notice Matella, Dusk and Luna stop walking as a man about Matella's age with short, black hair and green eyes approached the group.

"Matella, I wanted to make sure we wer…" a familiar, yet unexpectedly friendly, male voice stopped as he noticed Thorn and her bandmates.

"Yes Cyrus?" Matella asked.

"Never mind. I see that you're busy," he replied, his tone quickly became cold while his gaze never left the Hex Girls.

"Cyrus what's wrong?" Matella asked rather sweetly.

Thorn sighed with relief as Cyrus's attention turned to Matella.

"Nothing," he muttered.

Matella sighed and gently clasped his hand.

"Relax," Matella said, her voice quite soothing. "This is all for the greater good."

Cyrus muttered something inaudible, though based on his expression, Thorn guessed it wasn't pleasant. But after a moment he nodded.

"Okay, I trust you," he said.

With that the two separated and Cyrus walked past the group, only briefly glaring at the Hex Girls as he left.

"What was that about?" Dusk asked.

"Nothing important," Matella said as she resumed walking.

Thorn and Dusk glanced at each, shrugged and followed the witch.

* * *

The room the group stopped at was called "Research Lab 3" and with a wave of Matella's hand, the large steel door swung open.

"Please, take a seat," Matella said while gesturing to the round table in the center of the room.

Looking around the room, Thorn saw that the room was lined with shelves containing old-looking books and glass containers holding a palette of colored liquids, salts and powders while there were mason jars containing an assortment of strange items. Aside from themselves, there were no other people in the room.

Thorn took a seat across from Matella while Luna and Dusk sat adjacent to her. Thorn noticed that there were a few bowls, measuring cups, and some mortars and pestles placed on the table.

"Now Thorn, go ahead and ask any question you want," Matella said breaking the silence. "Though I'll warn you, you may not be satisfied with some of the answers."

Thorn stared at the witch in bewilderment. This was the moment she was waiting for. She was finally going to get the answers to the myriad of questions that were buzzing around in her head for the past couple days. But now with the answers literally across the table from her, Thorn felt overwhelmed and spent several minutes trying to pick a question before deciding to go the basics.

"So what is magic anyways?" Thorn finally asked.

"Starting with the big questions now aren't we," Matella said as she leaned back in her chair. She paused for a few minutes before speaking. "It's an innate force that some people have and most people don't. Those with magic are capable of magnificent feats." She paused. "Where it comes from and why certain people are magic is unknown, though there are numerous hypotheses that try to explain it; the two most likely ones are it's an unknown natural force or it comes from the gods." She paused again, this time a little longer than before. "Think of magic as a tool you can use to create change in accordance to your will. Does that make sense to you?"

"That actually does," Thorn said as she recalled some of the occult teachings she'd read about. "But if that's true, why couldn't I use any magic before the cemetery? I've tried different Wiccan and occult spells before and nothing ever happened."

Matella leaned forward. "Well that's cause what you're reading isn't real sweetie. Nearly all of the spells and claims of magic you find in public are wishful thinking, confirmation bias, psychological tricks or outright lies."

Thorn slouched in her seat. "Great. Everything I believed in is bullshit then," she grumbled.

"Oh no! Not at all! There are a lot of psychological and moral lessons that can be learned from them. And you're free to use them as a moral compass or whatever. All I'm saying is that they're not real supernatural magic," Matella explained.

"I guess that's one way of putting it," Thorn said, disappointed that being Wiccan wasn't the source of her magic. Despite this reveal, Thorn was surprised that she wasn't as upset about it as she thought she would be.

Thorn paused. "So would that mean when I touched that magic spot on the mausoleum… it what, activated my magic or something?"

"Correct. Those with latent magical skills typically require an external magic source to jumpstart their own abilities so to speak," Matella said. "Though it is strange that you were able to conjure that seal without having been exposed to magic before."

"But Thorn was exposed to real magic before," Dusk interjected. "She used a spell to send Sarah Ravencroft back into her spell book."

"Now that's a name I haven't heard in a long time," Matella said, the mention of Sarah clearly piquing her interest. "If true that would explain why Thorn was able to conjure the sealing spell at the cemetery."

"Yeah it's true," Thorn said. "It happened a few years ago. Her descendant Ben managed to free her ghost from her imprisonment and after a long struggle, I was able to get her spell book and read the spell that sent her back into the book. 'Ancient evil get thee hence…'"

Matella approvingly nodded along as Thorn recited the spell. Though she didn't realize it, Thorn was smiling and blushing as she recalled the incantation.

"Now, you wouldn't happen to still have Sarah's spell book?" Matella asked. It was an odd question and the way Matella asked about the book made Thorn a bit uneasy.

"No, it was destroyed in a fire," Thorn replied.

"Oh, never mind then," Matella said in disappointment.

There was a brief moment of silence between the women. With no one saying anything, Thorn's thoughts went wild again with questions.

"So if I have access to real spells, what else can I do?" she finally asked.

"Yeah," Dusk cheered. "I also want to see what you're capable of Thorn."

"Good idea," Matella said with a smile. "Why don't we test out your skills with magic?"

Thorn smiled with excitement. With actual spells, her mind went wild with the different things she could possibly do.

"Alright then," Matella said as she removed a piece of parchment from her pocket, quickly glanced at it and then pointed to two jars on a shelf. "We need some ground quartz and pentagonite. Thorn, would you please get them."

"Sure," Thorn said as she got up from her seat. But just as she got up, a force pushed her back into her seat.

"No need to get up," Matella said. "Use telekinesis, the simplest of spells; you don't even have to say anything." With a wave of her hand, a container filled with a black liquid resembling tar came off the shelf and drifted into her hands. Matella then measured the liquid and poured into a large bowl.

Thorn blinked a few times in confusion. She assumed that she had used telekinesis before but those incidents were accidental, brought about by distress; using it on command was on another level.

"How do I do that?" Thorn asked.

"Just focus on whatever object you want to move and then make it move," the witch replied as another jar, this one containing a liquid that resembled vegetable oil, flew into her hands.

_ That's useful _ Thorn thought, rolling her eyes. Regardless, she turned to shelves. The quartz was closer to the table, so she focused on that ingredient first. Shrugging, she waved her hand just as Matella had done. But instead of the container drifting through the air into Thorn's grasp, the jar fell to the ground like someone had bumped into the shelf and it shattered.

"Uh sorry about that," Thorn said.

"Don't worry about it," Matella sighed. "Quartz is the second most common mineral on the planet, so it's not like we're going to run out of it." With a clap, two phantom hands phased through the walls and quickly cleaned up the mess.

"Okay, what are those things?" Thorn asked. "I saw one at processing."

"They're just conjured entities. Don't worry about them, just get another jar of quartz," Matella said as she carefully measured the liquid before pouring it into the bowl.

Thorn nodded. She raised her hand in the direction of the jar. She closed her eyes, not wanting to see any distractions. She visualized the jar she needed.  _ Okay. I'm moving the jar.  _ She repeated the phrase several times in her mind, enough to the point where she could almost feel the smooth surface of the jar. _ Just lift the jar up.  _ She raised her hand a bit higher.  _ Now bring it over here.  _ Thorn brought her hand closer to herself. After almost a minute, she felt the smooth glass jar in her hand and she opened her eyes.

The jar of ground-up quartz was in her hand. Thorn smiled with child-like excitement and looked to Matella.

"Good. Now get the pentagonite," the witch said.

Thorn gave Matella the quartz and turned her attention to the jar containing the blueish powder. She raised her hand and repeated the process from before, the only difference this time was that she kept her eyes open. While it lacked the speed and grace that Matella was capable of, Thorn was delighted to watch the jar trudge through air and inevitably end up in her hands.

"Hey, that was faster than last time," Dusk quipped.

"I guess I'm getting better at it," Thorn replied.

"That's nice, now can you pass it to me." Matella said.

"Oh right, here you go." Thorn handed over the jar and watched Matella pour some of the powdered pentagonite into the bowl. The witch then removed a piece of blank paper and pen from her pocket and transcribed something from the parchment onto the paper.

"Let's do some verbal spell work," Metalla said. "Try reading this." She slid the bowl and paper over to Thorn.

Thorn looked into the bowl. Nothing was happening with the strange mixture but that was likely where the spell came in. She looked over the spell and then looked at the bowl.

"Okay here it goes—Bring to union, this mystic blend and prepare this brew for…the iniquitous end?" Thorn tensed up. Something was…off. She looked to Matella for guidance, but Matella just gave her a dismissive look, as if everything was going to be fine. But before she could dwell on her feelings, the contents of the bowl started to glow. The mixture churned and stirred; the grains of quartz and pentagonite, for the lack of a better term, melted into the swirling liquid despite the bowl remaining at room temperature. The glow grew brighter and the turbulent liquid turned blue-green. Mesmerized by what she had done, Thorn gazed into the concoction and eagerly awaiting the next steps; any ominous thoughts long since dispelled.

* * *

Luna shook her head. Not in disbelief of magic—that ship had long since sailed away—but in frustration and anger. As much as Luna didn't want to admit it, she was still upset with Thorn for flipping out on her and Dusk for pointing out Thorn's crime. Luna had shown genuine concern over her friend's behavior, yet Thorn not only dismissed her, she had the audacity to tell her to "shut up."  _ She didn't truly apologize. _ Luna gazed at the ground and sighed.

Dusk was almost bad as Thorn once they got here. While being held at gunpoint, which in itself was a terrifying experience, Dusk had to argue with their captors and escalate things. Then she had her knife and somehow thought she was going to take on a bunch of cultists. Luna truly believed that Dusk was going to get them both killed and she had barely held it together. Overall, not a good night.

The sudden glow of a blue-green light dragged Luna out of her thoughts. She was only half aware of what Matella and Thorn were doing but whatever was happening in the bowl made Luna uncomfortable.

"Alright, let's add some vampire dust and goblin blood," Matella stated like they were household items. Luna watched as the witch handed Thorn a jar containing lavender dust that had a strong earthy scent and a vial containing a dark green, viscous liquid.  _ Wait? Vampires and goblins are real. Great.  _ Luna shuddered _.  _ Yet neither Thorn nor Dusk seemed shocked at this revelation. Then again, Thorn just learned that she was a magical witch and Dusk was probably more excited than anything else.

Luna watched as Thorn poured the two items into the brew. Puffs of lavender and green smoke billowed out from the bowl while the glow dimmed and the churning liquid became darker.

"Now, we'll add some werewolf teeth, the neck bolt of a flesh golem, the linen wrapping of a mummy and some ectoplasm," Matella replied. With a clap of her hands, several floating hands appeared and in an assembly line manner, delivered the ingredients to Thorn before vanishing.

Mouth agape, Luna watched as Thorn handled each monstrous item. The long and sharp canines of the werewolf that glistened in the artificial light of the room. A frost-covered jar containing a bluish liquid that seemed to float around in its container. The faded white linen wrappings of the mummy that looked thousands of years old. The long metal rod of whatever a flesh golem was that was covered in what looked like dried blood. Thorn took each item and, with Dusk leaning over the black-haired girl's shoulder to catch a glimpse of the monster parts, dropped them into the bowl.

If they weren't handling the remains of actual monsters, Luna would've laughed at their child-like excitement. But instead, the surreal sight before her was worrisome.

"So how do you get this stuff?" Dusk asked.

Matella chuckled. "Simple. You kill them and harvest what you need."

Luna's heart skipped a beat. _ She can kill monsters. _

"They were hurting people, right?" Thorn nervously asked.

"Sure," Matella said and she started writing something else down. "Alright, here's another spell for you to try." She handed another scrap of paper to Thorn.

"With Cosmic justice I seek to undo, the six kin I… abuse; their curses to this key I imbue."

Crimson flames suddenly rose from the bowl, violently hissing. Luna cringed. Something about the way the fire sounded felt wrong. Luna pushed her seat back and trembled. The fire wasn't hissing, it was screaming in hellish pain. Luna covered her ears, but the inhuman cries still echoed in her head. Then just as quickly as it began, the chorus of tortured monster cries ended and the flames died, much to Luna's relief.

"What the hell was that?" Thorn asked, her voice shaky and hushed.

"Yeah, that was messed up," Dusk said.

At least her friends were starting to realize how dangerous their situation was.

"It's nothing to fear, just some minor magic meant to… test you on how brave you are," Matella quickly answered. "I hope you're not too scared to continue your…training."

"What! No! I'm not scared," Thorn said. "I can keep going."

"Yeah," Dusk added. "Me too."

Luna shook her head and stood up. Now wasn't the time to be upset with her friends; there was a serious threat present.

"No, this isn't right," the redhead said, breaking her long silence. "Thorn, I think we should stop this."

Thorn and Dusk turned to Luna.

"Is there a problem Luna?" Matella asked before the two girls could speak.

"Yes! What's in that manuscript and why aren't you showing us it?" Luna said.

Luna shuddered as the witch gave her the coldest glare she had ever received from a person. But when Thorn and Dusk turned to Matella, the witch smiled.

"It's simply a test and due to the nature of magic, having the test-taker read ahead could cause unforeseen dangers," Matella casually explained, her gaze never once leaving Luna.

_ Bullshit _ ! Luna was determined to figure out what was written on that piece of parchment.

"I see…" Luna said in an attempt to feign ignorance.

"Luna, if you can't handle being here, perhaps you need to be… removed from the premise," Matella calmly said.

"No…no. I'm fine," Luna responded with as much confidence as she could muster.

The witch half-smiled and then turned to Thorn. Luna sighed as the witch's attention left her. If Luna wanted to read the parchment, she had to play it smart and ensure that each move she made was one step ahead of Matella. But unfortunately for the keyboardist, the witch made the first move.

"Alright Thorn," Matella said as the singer's eyes lit up. "I don't mean to alarm you, but these next few ste- er, tests will require some very delicate spellwork that will have results some may find terrifying. You will also have to precisely recite the next spells; you can't hesitate, misread or incorrectly say a word could be disastrous."

"Oh," Thorn said, the enthusiasm in her voice dipped.

"But I wouldn't worry too much, you seem to possess some natural skill with magic as you've passed every test so far. And I will guide you through these next few parts, though I cannot use my own magic from here on out," Matella said, patting the empty seat next to her. "Come sit."

Thorn smiled and moved to the other side of the table with the bowl.

"Yeah, you can do it Thorn!" Dusk cheered, causing Thorn to blush.

But Luna didn't share either of her friend's excitement. Luna scowled as Matella looked over the parchment.

"Luna sweetie." The witch's voice caught the redhead off guard. "There's an ingredient neither Thorn nor I could touch, do you mind getting it for us?" The witch pointed to a large case that was, of course, on the other side of the room. The ball was in Luna's court.

"No problem," Luna said as nonchalantly as she could. She turned to Dusk. "Hey, do you mind giving me a hand with this?"

"Sure," the blonde replied.

Luna made her way over to the case with Dusk at her side. It was a risky move to leave Thorn alone with Matella, but Luna needed to get Dusk on her side and separating Thorn from Matella seemed impossible.

"Don't you think it's a bit odd that Matella isn't showing us what's on that parchment?" Luna whispered once she and Dusk had moved from the table

"She said it would be dangerous if anyone else saw it," Dusk replied.

"And do you really believe that?"

"I don't know."

Luna sighed. "Look, she's hiding something. I just feel it, okay. I don't think we're safe here and I think it has to do with that parchment. I need to get a look at it to confirm it."

"Even if that's true, how are you supposed to do that?" Dusk asked.

The two girls arrived at the case and Dusk opened it.

"Hey, we're rich," Dusk joked as she pulled out a handful of silver coins.

Indeed, there were easily a hundred coins in the case. Looking closer at them, Luna noticed that they were far from ancient as the present year was on them. On one side was a Roman or Greek looking woman carrying some branches and an American flag with a sun rising over some mountains; the word "LIBERTY" was written above the woman. The other side depicted the Great Seal of the United States with the nation's name above it and "1 oz. FINE SILVER ONE DOLLAR."

_ They're American Silver Eagles _ Luna realized.

"We'll need thirty of them," Matella hollered.

Luna thought for a minute, noting the fragile jars and vases surrounding the coin case. One vase in particular—an ornate, Oriental-looking one—was perched precariously close the edge of a shelf. Close enough that if someone were to "accidentally" bump into the shelf, that vase would come crashing down.

"Dusk, I need you to do me a favor," Luna said.

"What?" Dusk asked.

"Listen carefully…" Luna began as she explained her plan to Dusk.

* * *

Carrying half of the required coins, Luna made her way back to the table. Luna placed the coins in front of the two witches.

"So," Luna said to buy some extra time and divert Matella's attention away from Dusk. "Why can't you two handle the coins?" The question piqued Thorn's interest as she quickly looked up from the brewing potion.

Matella frowned, but when she noticed Thorn looking at her, smiled.

"Well, silver is an interesting material, as it nullifies magic and burns when it comes in contact with mages; it's actually the one of the few things folklore gets right about werewolves, vampires and other magical entities," Matella explained, more so to Thorn than to Luna.

_ Good to know _ Luna thought eyeing the coins. Maybe she could grab a couple from the case; throw them at Matella perhaps. Luna took her seat and started counting down. Five. Four. Three. Two. One. Smash!

"Hehe. Whoops," Dusk exclaimed as she looked down at the shattered vase. "Sorry."

"Oh for the Fallen's sake! That was an irreplaceable artifact!" Matella shouted as she rose from her seat. "What did you do?"

"It was an accident, I swear!" Dusk lied.

"Ugh! Stay where you are," Matella said before she made her way to Dusk.

As the witch dealt with Dusk's mess, Luna smiled as Matella left the parchment face down on the table; a mistake she made in her rage. Luna went around the table to Thorn. The Wiccan was giggling at Dusk's antics, oblivious to the parchment.

"Thorn we need to take a look at this," Luna whispered as she pointed to the parchment.

"What!? We can't do that, it'll mess with my training," Thorn replied in a hushed tone.

"Look I don't think this is training. Matella is hiding something and it has to do with this parchment," Luna tried to explain.

"You can't possibly know that for sure," Thorn said.

"She's been acting so secretive since we started this spell," Luna added.

"And? It's supposed to be a test. You're not supposed to know the answers to a test you're taking."

"Sally," Luna said, grabbing the black-haired girl by the shoulders, nearly shaking her. "That potion looks like something out of Sarah Ravencroft's book. What kind of person would give a novice something as threatening as that to work with?"

The two looked into the bowl. Like an infernal hurricane, the dark brew churned and slight rumbles could be heard from unholy concoction.

"Kim, if I don't do this, I don't know how I'll learn about my magic," the Wiccan said, removing herself from Luna's grasp. She turned away from both Luna and the bowl and grimaced.

Luna sighed. She couldn't imagine what her friend was going through. All she knew was that it was, to say the least, frustrating and confusing.

"How about I just take a quick peek to see if there's any danger," Luna said. "After all, I'm not the one taking the test."

"I…I guess that's alright," Thorn conceded. She moved her chair a few inches back. "Just so I don't see."

Luna nodded. She glanced up and made sure Matella was still distracted by Dusk. With a trembling hand, she reached for the bottom right corner and gradually lifted the parchment back. Her heart was racing and she kept glancing back to Matella to make sure the witch wasn't coming back. Slowly but surely, the script came into view and…Luna felt like her heart was going to stop.

The redhead dropped the parchment and it drifted back onto the table face down. She stumbled backwards, her breathing hastened, and her head pounded. But the worst was the cold she felt. It was unnatural, one could even say deathly.

None of it made sense. The script itself was completely illegible—a series of elegant, yet intentional prose resembling no language she'd ever seen—yet she was overwhelmed by a sense of dread. She wanted to get out of there and throw up yet she couldn't find the strength to move her legs.

"Thorn…" Luna muttered. "We need to lea…"

She was cut off as she felt an intense pressure around her neck, as if a pair of invisible hands were wrapping around her. She scratched at her neck in an attempt to relieve herself of the choking sensation, but it did nothing. Luna glanced at Thorn and she could see panic in the singer's eyes.

"Thorn, what's going over there," Matella asked, the sudden surprise of the witch's voice caused Thorn to flinch.

"Something's wrong with Lun…"

"Just count out the coins," Matella interrupted. "I'll deal with Luna."

Thorn reluctantly nodded and she and Dusk went to deal with the coins.

Luna felt the pressure spread across her body like a suffocating blanket was wrapped around her, leaving her immobile. She could only watch as Matella approached her, the witch's hand clenched into a fist. Luna struggled to turn her head away, but the pressure just increased as the witch stood directly next to her. Matella whispered into the keyboardist's ear.

"Kimberly, I really wish you didn't do that," the witch said, her tone becoming hostile. "It was a very stupid move."

Luna could do nothing as the witch continued.

"Now I knew you were incapable of reading it— Levre wrote it in a magical script non-mages sometimes call Voynichese and is only readable to mages— and my repulsion charm did its job as you were overcome with fear and dread." There was a pause. "But I can't have you prying around and giving Sally bad ideas; she needs this."

Luna gulped as her head was forcibly turned to her friends who were working at the table.

"If you don't stop sticking your head where it doesn't belong, you'll ruin Sally's one chance at understanding her magic. In all likelihood, she won't find anyone else to teach her how to properly use her abilities. Her curiosity will probably lead her to start practicing on her own. With the dangers of magic plus an inexperienced witch, well, that's not a good combination."

There was a brief moment of silence.

"Surely you don't want to be responsible for an accident that gets them killed or worse," Matella calmly whispered and there was emphasis on the "accident."

Luna's heart skipped a beat. She recognized Matella's threat. Even if Matella was the one who caused the "accident" responsible for her friends' deaths, it would be because of her. And that was too much for the redhead; had she been able to move, Luna would've collapsed to the floor. That seed of guilt had been planted.

"I'll let you go, but please behave yourself," the witch said as she patted Luna's shoulder. "If not for their sakes then for yours." She then cheerfully announced that Luna was fine.

The pressure immediately vanished and Luna gasped for breath. Panting, she made her way back to the table where her friends greeted her.

"Luna, are you okay?" Thorn asked.

Luna nodded. "Yeah…I'm fine."

"What was on the parchment?" Thorn questioned.

Luna paused.

"Nothing…" her gaze momentarily darted to Matella. "…dangerous."

Luna took a seat next to Dusk and simply watched as Matella retrieved the parchment and explained the next steps to Thorn. The redhead scowled. She played her hand too quickly and the damn witch beat her. It was a mistake Luna vowed not to make again.

* * *

_ She's not telling me something _ . Thorn watched as the redhead sat down in silence. She knew that whatever Luna had seen terrified her. Of course, Matella did warn them not to look at the parchment. Maybe there really was a spell on the parchment that Matella was trying to protect them from.

"Thorn, do we have enough coins?" Matella asked.

Thorn blinked several times as she snapped her attention back to the ingredients.

"Um yeah, there's thirty of them," she replied.

The witch nodded. She copied some additional text from the parchment onto another blank sheet of paper.

"Here's the next spell. You'll have to read it as the coins are dropped into the potion," Matella said as she turned to Dusk. "Do you mind handling the coins for Thorn?"

The blonde nodded and picked up a handful of coins. "Whenever you're ready."

Thorn cleared her throat and read the spell. "Forsake the world and take the deal. Selfish desires for a broken Cosmic seal."

The coins sizzled in the magical brew and gradually melted into the dark concoction. The bowl trembled and shook as strands of the dark liquid rose into the air like aqueous stalagmites. The strands curved and collided with each other in a frenzied mass of writhing tendrils. The strands then fused into a single, metallic-like orb about the size of a basketball that hovered above the now empty bowl.

"What…is that?" Thorn gasped as she backed away from her creation.

The orb solidified, leaving a single opening at the top of the object and it aesthetically resembled the talisman with the coordinates.

"We're almost done, Thorn!" Matella cheered. "We just need to perform a simple ceremony and add one more ingredient."

"And then what?" Thorn asked.

"Then your uh training will be complete and..." the witch trailed off, her mind seemingly elsewhere. "… We shall be one step closer to awakening our Lord and He shall remake a perfect world. For your efforts He will reward you with whatever you want. He can provide you with answers to questions neither I nor anyone else can answer."

"Really?" Thorn asked.

"Yes," Matella cheered.

"Aww that's awesome," Dusk said. "You gotta finish this now!"

Thorn grinned. Whatever she wanted. That was the last thing she expected to hear. Sure, under normal circumstances, she'd be dubious of Matella's claims but this was a far cry from normal circumstances. Monsters were real and she was an actual witch conducting genuine supernatural spells. Why couldn't some magical deity grant her a wish?

With that, her mind wandered. She could have the Earth healed and the environment restored. She could make the Hex Girls the popular band in history. But Matella's last comment came to mind. A complete understanding of magic so she could finally get a real answer—not just some hand wave or shrug— to why she was a witch and what she was truly capable of. That last thought was exciting, almost seductive.

"What's next?" the black-haired girl asked.

"We're going to bring this key to the ceremonial chamber," Matella explained. "There you will complete your training."

_ This is a key?  _ She looked to Matella for clarification, but the witch just summoned several phantom hands to clean up the table and folded up the parchment.

"Thorn, be careful with the key, it's quite delicate," Matella warned as she motioned for the musicians to follow her out of the room.

Not getting an answer, Thorn cautiously grabbed the floating sphere, half expecting something to happen if she touched it. Fortunately, nothing did and she carefully cradled the sphere in her arms. She then headed toward the door; Matella and Dusk were already there.

"Hold on a sec," Luna quietly said from behind.

Thorn slowed her pace.

"What's up?" Thorn asked.

"I don't think you should go through with this," Luna whispered.

"Why?" Thorn inquired.

The redhead hesitated before slowing her pace enough for Thorn to inadvertently pass her, much to the guitarist's surprise.

"Is something wrong?" Matella said from the doorway, staring at the two girls, though Thorn felt that the question was directed at Luna. Luna shook her head and the witch smirked. There was something going on between them.

"Good," Matella said, beckoning for the two girls to hurry up.

Thorn walked past the witch, whose gaze never seemed to leave her friend. There was something going on between Luna and Matella and it wasn't good. Whatever it was, it was bothering Thorn; Luna went through a lot and Thorn didn't want to put her through any more distress. But Matella had a means to the answers Thorn craved. She couldn't just run away when she was so close. Thorn sighed as she entered the hallway.


	11. My Soul to Take

The hallway was nearly empty. Of those who remained— a few robed individuals hastily walking in the same direction and a handful of guards standing vigilant at their posts—acted like they were in preparation for something. It was certainly odd and Thorn wondered if it had to do with the key she was carrying.

"Praise be to the Fallen! The lamb is here!" a voice suddenly exclaimed, startling Thorn enough for her to almost drop the key.

A robbed individual in a gold and crimson mask approached from seemingly nowhere (or perhaps Thorn was just caught up in her own thoughts to notice him). When he neared Thorn, the individual knelt down and bowed his head.

"Your gift shall raise the Fallen!" he praised, never looking up from the ground.

"Ummm…" Thorn muttered as she backed away from the cultist.

"Just ignore him and keep walking," Matella calmly said.

Shuddering, Thorn clung to the walls and stepped around the cultist all while keeping a watchful eye on him lest he try to grab her or something. But he remained in his position, repeating a prayer to the Fallen. Thorn sighed with relief when she finally got around him.

After a few moments, Dusk, Luna and Matella caught up with Thorn and Matella motioned for them to continue. As she made her way down the hall, Thorn noticed the guards bowing their heads when she neared.

"The Fallen shall rise again," they said as she passed them.

Thorn swallowed and her grip on the key was slipping due her sweaty palms.  _ Maybe Luna was right, maybe I shouldn't go through with this. _

"Turn left," Matella abruptly said, snapping the Wiccan from her thoughts.

Thorn stopped at an intersection and made the left. She saw two giant doors engraved with the eye symbol. Almost on cue, the doors slowly creaked open.

"Go on in," Matella said.

Upon entering the vast room, Thorn was immediately struck with the strong scent of burning incense. Yet she recognized the fragrance: thyme. She'd used thyme plenty of times in herbal remedies and some minor rituals; heck, she'd burn thyme just because she liked the aroma. The familiar scent was comforting and Thorn relaxed herself.

As the black-haired girl enjoyed the evocative incense, Matella took the lead and brought the Hex Girls down an aisle lined with rows of wooden pews. They walked in solemn silence and Thorn noticed that the walls and ceilings were covered in beautiful frescoes depicting mystical scenes: strange, eldritch beings— either dark gray or yellow-white in color— engaged in fierce combat across the vastness of space. Yet among the images, the three large frescoes on the ceiling were the most detailed.

The first fresco, located closest to the entrance, depicted a large human-like figure clad in black and gold armor with piercing gold and crimson eyes; two inky-black, wing-like appendages stretched outwards from its back, completing its appearance. The being was addressing a crowd of humans, their hands clasped in prayer and were tiny compared to the armored figure, and the figure appeared to be in great anguish. A second figure, this one a blue-gray shadow with a mass of writhing tendrils at its feet and back, was stabbing the first figure from behind.

_ That's…the Fallen and the…Broken?  _ Thorn recalled the paintings from the museum and the notes about them.

As she and her friends continued down the aisle, the second fresco came into view. This one depicted the armored figure, the Fallen, being pulled into a dark vortex. The Fallen appeared to be clutching the universe itself in a vain attempt to escape. Above the Fallen was a third figure entirely clothed in a white robe that seemed to shine as rays of white light were surrounding it. The figure had three pairs of angel-like wings behind it, a mirror-like face and it appeared somewhat feminine. The figure had its arms outstretched and three glowing keys floated around it.

_ Uh…the Fallen's defeat? _ Thorn thought as she shook her head at the fresco. She had no idea who the angel-like figure was.

They continued on and the final fresco came into view. The image showed the Fallen rising from the dark vortex and the angel figure and the Broken were being cast into it. There were several cultists surrounding the Fallen in celebration for the Fallen was holding the Earth itself in its hands. Written around the image was a Latin phrase:  _ Magnus ab integro saeclorum nascitur ordo. _

"Stop here," Matella suddenly ordered.

Thorn blinked as she looked away from the frescoes, Matella's sudden remarks broke her from her thoughts. They had stopped in the center of the room. There Thorn saw a woman clad in a white, hooded robe kneeling in front of a pedestal with a hollowed top that created an indentation large enough to comfortably hold the key. But Thorn's attention was elsewhere.

"What is that?" she asked as a glimmering white light circled the woman and the pedestal. The light gently glided on its course, leaving a trail of material that resembled snow glistening in moonlight that disappeared upon touching the ground.

"The purification is complete," the woman in white calmly said in one of the most innocent sounding voices Thorn had heard. The woman stood up and the orbiting light darted into her hands where it disappeared.

"Excellent work Moriah," Matella said with a smile.

The woman in white turned around and nodded to Matella before bringing her attention to Thorn.

"Witch, step forward with the key," Moriah softly said.

Thorn took a few steps forward. The robed woman approached and was soon standing only a few inches from Thorn. Up close, Moriah looked young and Thorn wondered if she was even old enough to drink.

"So, do I put the key on the pedestal or something?" Thorn asked in an attempt to break the awkward silence.

"Pūrificō." Moriah tapped Thorn's forehead. Not the response she expected and neither was what happened next.

The white light suddenly appeared above Thorn. The light twirled around her in a downward spiral sprinkling the snowy material on her. The material was soft but quickly dissipated upon touching her. Thorn felt warm, like she was wrapped in a comfortable blanket. The light vanished when it reached the ground and the warmth left with it.

"Is that it?" Thorn asked.

Moriah nodded. "You may now place the key on the pedestal."

Thorn made her way over to the pedestal and placed the sphere in the appropriate spot with the opening facing up. She turned the key and it locked into position with a click.

"We're almost there Thorn," Matella excitedly said as she headed over to the pedestal, Dusk and Luna following close behind.

"My duty is done and I shall depart now," Moriah said to Matella. "The Fallen shall rise again."

"The Fallen shall rise again," Matella replied with a nod.

As Moriah turned to leave, she stopped and looked at Thorn.

"Blessed be thy soul, for it shall set the Fallen free." With that, the woman in white left the room.

"That was weird," Dusk remarked.

"No kidding," Thorn said in an attempt to hide how unnerved Moriah's departing comments made her feel.

"Okay Thorn, you're going to add the last ingredient now," Matella said.

"What do we need?" the Wiccan asked.

"Um…just a little bit of blood. Magical blood," the witch stated.

"Where are we getting that?" Thorn nervously asked.

"Umm… from well…" Matella stammered. She handed Thorn a small razor. "You."

Thorn swallowed. She glanced at the razor in her now trembling hand and then back to Matella and her friends.

But before she could do anything, Luna stepped forward. "That's it, we're done. Thorn we need leave."

"Oh relax, we only need a drop or two of blood," Matella quickly said to Luna as she stepped in front of the redhead, blocking Thorn's view of her. The witch then turned to Thorn. "Just prick your finger, let a little blood fall into the opening and you'll be on your way to getting your answers."

"Just…a drop?" Thorn asked.

Matella nodded.

Thorn looked back at the razor.  _ Just a drop _ she thought  _ and then I'd get my answers _ . She raised her hand over the key. Biting her lip, she slid the blade across the tip of her index finger and winced from the fleeting pain. Her finger bled and, after putting some pressure on the wound, a few droplets of blood fell into the opening on the key.

She heard the blood droplets hit the bottom of the hole and she gasped. The key glowed with a reddish light and the sphere rotated itself so the opening faced the far wall. But that was the least of Thorn's worries.

"Ah," she weakly gasped and she dropped the razor. She wrapped her arms around herself and shivered. Even growing up with harsh New England winters, Thorn had never felt this cold before.

"Thorn are you alright?" Dusk asked as she and Luna ran over to the Wiccan.

"N-No," Thorn said through chattering teeth. She would've fallen to her knees had her friends not caught her.

"This needs to stop now!" Luna demanded.

"Don't worry, the coldness will leave once she starts the spell," the witch replied. Matella handed Thorn the parchment. "Now read the last lines."

As Thorn glanced down at the parchment, Dusk and Luna recoiled away from her with looks of terror on their faces.

"W-what's h-happening?" she struggled to say.

"It's fine, non-mages just can't comprehend it," Matella said.

"B-but…" Thorn began.

"Just read it already!" the witch shouted.

Thorn looked at the lines and shook her head at the strange characters on the parchment.

"I c-can't r-read it," she said.

"Just focus on the text," Matella said, her tone becoming more annoyed. "And you'll be able to read it."

Thorn held the parchment closer to her face. She could barely hold it steady, but she managed to keep her attention on the first "word" at the bottom of the parchment.

"B-bind." Her eyes widened as the text somehow made sense. She continued to recite the spell.

"...my s-soul to t-this key, t-the only u-user shall b-be me."

Her body stopped shivering and that unnatural chill was gone.

"Keep going," Matella said.

"Cosmic revelation is what I seek. Tear down illusions and let Him speak."

A beam of red light shot out from the sphere and hit the far hall. A wave-like ripple spread across the surface of the wall like a stone thrown into a lake. The wall bent and warped; cracks appeared and crimson light emitted from them. The cracks grew larger and the lights brightened, and eventually the stone wall gone. In its place was a barrier of transparent, crimson energy.

Yet, there was something else behind the barrier. A black crystal, only a little taller than a person, stood erect. Thorn couldn't shake the feeling that something was watching her from beyond the crimson veil.

"Oh praise the Fallen! We're so close! Keep going Thorn," Matella cheered.

"A final strike against the Light…" Thorn stopped. She sniffled and wiped a streak of blood from her nose. "Shatter the wall for the Fallen's delight…" Thorn went into a coughing fit and fell to her knees. Her lungs burnt and she felt exhausted. After a few moments, her coughing stopped. She wiped her mouth. More blood. She stood back up and looked at the parchment. Crimson flecks were splattered over it.

"I… don't want to do this anymore," she choked. The coughing resumed, though more violently than before.

"Oh no, no, no. You can't stop now," Matella said. She pointed at the red barrier. "Look, it's almost down. Just finish the last line and there will be no more pain. I promise you that."

Thorn looked at the barrier. It had grown dimmer and portions of it were flickering in and out of existence.

"Just, one more line," Thorn muttered.

"And then the Fallen will provide you with the answers no one else can give you," the witch added.

Thorn spat out some blood and readied herself. This was it. No more obstacles, no more 'I don't knows' no more tests, no more pain. Just answers. Despite the pain, she read the spell.

"With a faltering breath and... fading mind…" the room started spinning around and her vision blurred. She could barely keep her balance. "My…final act, I have… resigned. Let the Cosmic reawake! I pray the Fallen, my soul to ta-"

"SALLY STOP!"

* * *

When she saw the parchment again and she felt that sense of dread— a sensation even Dusk had felt— Luna knew this wasn't going to end well. Seeing Thorn's physical condition as she recited the final part of the spell was the final straw. She didn't care about the witch's threats, she needed to stop Thorn. But that feeling was even more overwhelming than before and it took all her strength just to shout 'stop.'

"Sally you can't go through with it," Luna begged as she made her way to her friend.

"Yeah, you can't do this anymore," Dusk said. Luna was thankful that Dusk finally realized how bad the situation was.

Thorn just looked at them and trembled. Luna gasped at Thorn's appearance. She was far paler than normal and there was blood smeared around her mouth. Her emerald eyes were dullen and full of pain and fear. Her gaze seemed distant, aloof even, like she wasn't really looking at them. A single tear rolled down the Wiccan's cheek; Luna knew Thorn was near death.

"That spell is killing you Sally!" Luna shouted. She could feel her eyes tearing up.

"We're not going to let you kill yourself over this," Dusk proclaimed.

Thorn glanced between the parchment and her friends. Luna shook her head, ran up to Thorn and took the parchment from her. Luna fought the urge to throw up as she held the charmed parchment and tossed it aside.

"Come on, we're leav…" The unseen force was back around her neck. She glared at Matella.

"That's enough from you Kimberly," Matella said. "Sally, pick up the parchment and complete the spell."

A force pushed Luna to her knees.  _ Fuck _ ! The witch had her pinned.

"Hey! What the hell are you doing to her!?" Dusk yelled. Luna noticed Dusk reaching for the knife on her ankle.

"Jane stay out of this," Matella ordered. With a flick of her wrist, Dusk was thrown back several feet into the pews.

Luna looked to Thorn. "Help," she managed to weakly say. The force tightened, causing Luna to gasp for air.

"Stop hurting her," Thorn grunted, which started another coughing fit.

"This is her own fault Sally; I warned her about what would happen if a non-mage intervened with the spell," Matella calmly explained.

Luna gritted her teeth.  _ Fucking liar.  _ She looked to Thorn and ever-so-slightly shook her head no.  _ Please don't believe her. _

* * *

Thorn spat more blood onto the floor and shook her head.

"Let her go," Thorn said as she struggled to catch her breath.

"I assure you I'm not-"

"Let her go!"

Matella bit her lip and frowned. She glanced around the room for a moment before sighing. "Okay. Finish the spell first."

Thorn clenched her fists and gritted her teeth. "Stop hurting my friend."

"Finish the spell," Matella coldly repeated.

"No." Thorn muttered. "If that spell is so important, why don't you finish it yourself?"

"Hmph! I can't," Matella said. "You bound yourself to that key; you're the only one who can finish that spell. Besides, it's just better for everyone if you just did it."

"BULLSHIT!" Thorn shouted. "Luna's right. I'll die if I finish that won't I?"

"Well…" the witch paused. "We always had the suspicion that a sacrifice was needed and getting the parchment confirmed it. I couldn't allow one of my brothers or sisters to sacrifice themselves because then they couldn't witness the glory of the Fallen. We needed an outsider to conduct it and when you showed up at the cemetery, I knew you were a gift from the Fallen."

Thorn shook her head. "So you used me!"

Matella smirked. "Can't say it wasn't hard; with a few truths and several well-placed lies, I told you what you wanted to hear and then you did whatever I needed you to do." The witch made her way over to Luna, who was still incapacitated by her telekinesis. "Unfortunately, Kimberly had to throw a wrench into my plans."

Matella stood behind Luna yet her gaze never left Thorn. "But now that you know the truth, I'll make one last deal with you." Matella patted Luna's shoulder. "Your life for hers."

The world around her came to a standstill. Thorn had been manipulated into almost killing herself. Her understanding of the world was shattered for the second time and everything she learned in the past couple days came under question. But when Matella threatened to kill Luna, a line was crossed.

Thorn was only somewhat aware of the dark blue light radiating from her fist.

"Sally don't be stupid," Matella warned. She raised her hand and Luna cried as her head was violently turned so she wasn't looking at Thorn. Thorn could see the tears streaming down the redhead's face. "I have no qualms about snapping her neck."

Thorn grimaced. She could feel the magical energy coursing through her and accumulating in her hand. The light grew brighter and eventually engulfed her hand. She said nothing and spat out some blood, her focus never leaving the witch. But a sudden flicker of movement behind the witch caught Thorn's attention. She saw Dusk slowly approaching Matella with her knife drawn.

"Let Luna go or…I'll destroy the key," Thorn said, raising her hand to the sphere. She checked on Dusk; she crept closer to the witch.

Matella laughed. "Ooh. Look at you Sally, trying to make demands of me." The witch calmed herself down. "Go ahead and do it. We can always make another."

Thorn went into another coughing fit, and her magic dimmed. Despite the pain, she managed to hold her stance. She looked past Matella; Dusk only needed a few more moments.

"That spell's taken its toll on you; you're in no condition to keep this magical standoff going, let alone do anything to me," Matella said.

"Who said I was gonna do anything to you?" Thorn managed to say with a weak half-smile.

Matella's smug smile became an annoyed frown as she tried to turn around. But she was too late. Dusk tackled the witch and the two fell to the floor. Luna gasped as she was released from Matella's telekinetic grasp and Thorn ran over to her.

"Are you okay?" the Wiccan asked.

Luna nodded. "I think I'll be fine."

But a sudden scream turned their attention to the fight. Matella fired a blast of yellow energy, knocking the blonde off the witch. Matella quickly got to her feet and she clutched her now bloody shoulder.

"Congratulations Jane, you get to die first," Matella grunted as she prepared to finish Dusk off with another blast of magic.

"Dusk!" Thorn shouted. Without hesitation, Thorn hurled an orb of blue energy at Matella. The fireball-like projectile whizzed through the air, altering Matella to the incoming attack. Instead of killing Dusk, Matella generated a green force field. The orb collided with the barrier, resulting in a small explosion; Matella remained unharmed.

"How noble of you Sally, trying to save your friend," Matella mocked. The green barrier dissipated. "Too bad your efforts won't accomplish anything." She fired a bolt of green lighting-like energy from her hand.

Thorn had no chance to react to the bolt. All she saw was a flash of green before an incredible force knocked the wind out of her and she momentarily lost all feeling in her body. Physical sensation returned when she slammed into the far wall easily sixty feet from the pedestal and fell to the floor.

"Thorn!" her friends shouted running over to her.

"That's enough from you two," Matella said while firing another green beam of energy at Dusk and Luna. The beam encased the two musicians in a green shell of mystic energy. The two pounded on their enclosure in a desperate bid to escape.

Thorn struggled to get up. Every muscle in her body ached and she was still trying to catch her breath, yet she managed to push through the pain and stood back up.

"I see you're tougher than you look," Matella said. "That's good. You can take more pain then."

Thorn gasped as a force pulled on her legs, causing her to fall back down. She felt a tug and screamed as she was dragged across the floor until she hit the pedestal.

"Time to get up," Matella said with a sinister smirk.

Thorn was suddenly lifted upright. She grabbed the pedestal to keep her balance.

"Now Sally…" Matella said.

"It's Thorn. You don't get to call me that," Thorn angrily cut the witch off.

"Whatever, finish the spell or your friends are dead," Matella said. The witch walked between Thorn and her friends and looked at the imprisoned girls. "Hmm. I'm thinking of turning them into roaches so I can crush them under my boot like the annoying vermin they are!"

"Don't you fucking dare," the Wiccan threatened.

Matella turned to Thorn and smiled. "Then finish the spell."

Thorn grunted as she picked up the parchment. Her coughing resumed as she glanced at the spell.

"No," Thorn said, glaring at the witch. "I'm sick of this."

Her hands grew warm and began to redden.

"I'm sick of your lies and I'm sick of your manipulation," Thorn stated. Puffs of smoke drifted up from the parchment. "And I'm sick of you hurting my friends!" The parchment ignited and flames consumed the document. The fire swirled around her hands before she launched a stream of flames at Matella.

But Thorn gasped in shock as Matella raised her hand. The fire was drawn to it and she caught the flames; Matella then snuffed out Thorn's flames.

"So this is how you want to do this, huh," Matella said.

Thorn's entire body ached and her breathing was heavy. She was bruised and could still taste blood in her mouth. She was exhausted and her vision hadn't fully cleared. She had no fighting experience nor did she have the slightest idea of what she was going to do. Yet, Thorn kept her arms raised, the blue light of her magic giving her a slight bluish hue.

"I can do this," she muttered to herself. She glanced at her captured and terrified friends.  _ For them. _

She returned her gaze to Matella and she kept her focus on the witch, ready for whatever was next.

There was a flash of light and Matella was suddenly holding her mask. She put it on and looked down at Thorn. "Then I'll happily oblige."


	12. Struggle and Emerge

Matella raised her arm into the air and a snowy mist formed above her. The mist spread outwards toward Thorn, freezing the air behind it and forming a giant shard of ice that hovered above Matella.

"Catch," Matella snickered. Like a frozen javelin hurling through the air, the ice shard launched itself at Thorn.

Without hesitation, Thorn lobbed two blue fireballs at the incoming projectile. The orbs of magic whizzed and crackled through the air before hitting the ice shard with a loud crack, shattering it into several smaller chunks.

"Ah shit," Thorn muttered. While she had destroyed the large ice shard, there were still smaller fragments coming at her with great speed. With not enough time to run, the Wiccan raised her arms to defend herself and closed her eyes, expecting the worse.

_ Barrier! Barrier! Barrier! _ She opened her eyes when she didn't feel the ice fragments hitting her and she saw a green shield of energy formed around her. The ice fragments harmlessly bounced off her barrier.

Thorn sighed with relief and her shield dissipated. But when she went to find Matella, Thorn's heart skipped a beat.

"Oh fuck, where'd she go?" Panicking, Thorn looked around but Matella was nowhere to be seen.

"Hehehehe." Matella's sinister laugh echoed in the vastness of the ceremonial chamber, coming from everywhere yet nowhere.

Thorn glanced around the room, trying to pinpoint the source of laughing, but couldn't spot the witch. She raised her hands and they were quickly engulfed in blue energy. She slowly started walking backwards, turning around momentarily when she heard another laugh.

"Ugh, show yourself!" Thorn shouted into the emptiness.

There was another laugh followed by a dozen or so small flashes of light. Thorn stopped. The lights had appeared in a dome-like fashion surrounding her. Thorn then heard what sounded like glass cracking all around her. Looking around, she noticed that where each light had flashed, a tiny, reflective disk had formed. Thorn gasped as the crackling became louder as the disks started expanding.

_ What's happening? _ Thorn nervously looked at the disks as they continued to expand until they were the size of a full body mirror. Indeed, mirrors were the best way to describe these objects as Thorn could see her reflection and the other mirrors in each disk.

Thorn quickly turned to her imprisoned friends and tried to run to them, but to her horror, the mirror objects followed her, keeping their position relative to Thorn's location.

"Having fun Sally?"

Thorn turned around and saw Matella standing in the mirror directly behind her. Thorn grimaced and hurled another blue orb of energy at the witch. Matella snickered and simply stepped aside, disappearing into the edge of the mirror. Thorn's jaw dropped when her attack went through the mirror.

"What!?" she gasped. In the mirror, she saw the fireball coming from behind. Stunned, she heard the fireball zooming through the air but it was too late. "Ah!" She screamed as her own magic crashed into her backside sending her crashing to the ground.

Thorn grunted as she struggled to pick herself back up.  _ Ugh, guess these things are also portals or something. _ She glared at one of the mirrors.  _ Note to self, don't send magic through them. _

"That was adorable," Matella mocked. Thorn quickly turned around and saw Matella standing in a different mirror. "Why don't you try that again?"

"Screw you! I'm not falling for that again!" Thorn shouted.

Matella shrugged. She raised her hand and fired a green bolt of energy. Thorn braced herself, but she was struck from the side rather than from where Matella was standing.

Thorn fell back down, winded from the strike. Her entire body continued to ache as she struggled to catch her breath. Noticing Matella in another mirror preparing to fire a lightning-like bolt of magic, Thorn gritted her teeth and powered through the pain, getting back up and quickly moved out of the attack's way. But Thorn screamed as she had stepped into the path of a second bolt and it struck her side. She fell back to the ground and once again, saw Matella in a different mirror, this one to Thorn's right.

Thorn scowled. She knew it wasn't a good idea, but got up and she threw a blue fireball at the witch's image. But Matella flickered away and the fireball went right through the mirror like before. But unlike last time, Thorn knew what would happen next.

_ Listen for it Thorn. _ She heard the distinct zoom of the fireball coming from straight above her and quickly jumped out the way. The fireball came crashing down, completely missing Thorn.

Thorn sighed with relief, but her relief was not long-lasting. She gasped when she saw Matella reappear but this time she was in two mirrors.

"Two places at once!?" Thorn shouted in frustration.

"Yup," the two Matellas said as they fired green bolts of energy at Thorn.

Thorn dove to the ground as the bolts came from two mirrors behind her. She could feel the heat from the bolts as they flew over her. They continued on their trajectory and went through the mirrors the Matellas were previously in. She quickly crawled to her feet and tried to identify where the bolts would reemerge from.

"Agh!" Thorn groaned as one of the bolts quickly shot out of a mirror to her left and grazed her shoulder. She stumbled backwards and the second bolt struck her legs, knocking her to the ground. Groaning from the pain, Thorn rolled onto her backside and was able to all the mirrors clearly.

The Wiccan's eyes widened in sheer terror as Matella appeared in every mirror with her hands engulfed in green energy.

Thorn quickly clasped her hands together. Her barrier formed around her as a bolt of energy was fired from each mirror. The bolts struck the barrier in a thunderous rumble and a brilliant flash of light. Yet Thorn shouted in pain as it still felt like she was being kicked repeatedly from all directions. Looking up, she could see the bolts trying to break through. Her eyes teared up as she saw cracks forming in the shield.

_ No. I'm not going down this way. _ Grunting from the pain, Thorn rolled herself over to the edge of the barrier and out of the impact zone of the bolts. She knew it was a massive risk, but Thorn raised a trembling arm and with a wave of her hand, she shattered her own barrier.

On que, the assemblage of bolts struck the ground where Thorn had created the barrier. There was a flash of green light and a loud crack. Thorn screamed when she felt the shock wave from the blast overcome her. She felt like she was hit by a car; she was tossed across the floor before slamming into one of the mirrors.

Thorn lay on the ground staring at the ceiling above. Her heart was pounding in her chest, her breathing quickened; her ears were ringing and the fresco above looked blurry. Everything hurt. She tried lifting her head but she collapsed with an exhausted gasp.

_ I can't… _

She wanted to let go and drift into unconsciousness. Sweet nothingness. Oblivion. The fresco above slowly cleared. She could see the Fallen being pulled into its eternal prison.

_ This must be what he felt… _ Battered and beaten. Defeated with no hope in sight.

_ I failed. _

The ringing lessened and Thorn could make out the cries from her friends. She tilted her head so she could see them. Dusk and Luna were both pounding against their magical containment; their faces red and tears were streaming down their faces.

"Thorn please get up! You can't give up!"

Their cries continued.  _ They need me and I failed them. _ Thorn remained on the floor, her gasps for breath slowly turned into soft sobs. She wanted to get up and keep going but she physically couldn't.  _ I failed them. _

Thorn could hear a set of footsteps slowly approach and soon Matella was standing over her.

"You give up Sally?" the witch coldly asked. "You can still complete the spell and then maybe I'll spare your friends."

Thorn could only glare at the witch. She tried to respond, but her coughing fit returned with a vengeance. She rolled onto her side and coughed up blood.

"Is that a yes?" Matella mocked.

Thorn just grunted and scowled as she tried to get a hold of her coughing.

"Don't listen to her Thorn!" Dusk called from distance.

"Try breaking the mirrors with a physical object!" Luna shouted.

"Okay, you two need to shut up already," Matella said. She pointed at Dusk and Luna; bolts of electric like energy struck them.

Thorn's heart nearly stopped and everything faded away: her physical pain, her coughing, the mirrors and even Matella. It was all gone. All Thorn could focus on were the screams. They were absolutely blood-curdling, full of unimaginable pain and agony. And they were coming from Dusk and Luna. Thorn could only watch as the two most important people in her life were tortured by Matella before her very eyes.

And Thorn snapped.

She didn't think and she couldn't feel. Her gaze shifted to Matella. She wasn't aware of the magic coursing through her, strengthening her and dulling her pain. Her hands were consumed in green energy. On instinct, she fired a bolt of energy and it snaked through the air before striking Matella in the chest. The masked witch was catapulted into one of the mirrors, completely shattering it.

Thorn quickly got back up. She saw that Matella had managed to land on her feet easily forty feet away. The masked witch was holding a smaller mirror in one hand and was ready to fire a green lightning bolt into the mirror with the other. In the remaining large mirrors, Thorn saw flashes of green. Without thought, the Wiccan fired a bolt at each incoming strike with an almost inhuman speed and precision.

One bolt managed to strike her, yet Thorn only grunted from the impact.

As the initial barrage ended, each mirror began glowing gold.

**_Defend._ **

Thorn clasped her hands and a barrier quickly engulfed her. Beams of golden energy fired from the mirrors. The beams ricocheted off Thorn's barrier and hit everything nearby leaving scorch marks on the floor and ceiling.

**_Destroy mirrors._ **

Thorn spun around and between the golden beams, she could see the rows of wooden pews. She reached out toward them. The two nearest pews violently shook before snapping off at the base. Thorn pulled her hand to her chest and the pews, twisting and spinning like a buzz saw, flew through the air. The mirrors stood no chance; four were immediately shattered by the rapidly rotating pews. Thorn guided the pews into each mirror, shattering each one until they were all gone. The Wiccan conjured a small barrier above her to protect herself from the shower of glass. Her focus quickly returned to Matella.

**_Distract her._ **

Thorn nodded in the direction of Matella and the two pews hurled themselves at the masked witch. Matella threw a set of blue fireballs at the incoming pews.

**_Split them._ **

Thorn refocused on the pews and they snapped in half. With smaller projectiles, the fireballs missed leaving Matella, for the first time in their confrontation, vulnerable.

**_Strike her._ **

The four halves of the pews dove at Matella. The witch cast a stream of fire at the pew halves, but the pieces darted around the fire.

**_Her shoulder wound. Strike it._ **

Thorn's gaze shifted to Matella's shoulder or specifically, the bloody spot where Dusk had stabbed her. Two of the pew halves further broke into smaller chunks and swarmed Matella; the witch frantically blasted away the chunks. Thorn glared at the witch's wound, and one of the remaining halves nosedived into Matella. The witch struck the pew with a bolt of energy, but an arm's length piece remained intact.

"AGH!" Matella stumbled backwards, clutching the two foot piece of wood impaled in her left shoulder. "I certainly didn't expect this from you."

Thorn simply glared at the witch and the last chunk of wood slammed into Matella knocking her to her knees.

"Not much for talking now, are we?" the cultist said.

Thorn glanced at the piece of wood and Matella screamed as it violently twisted into the bone. There was a loud crunch and the wooden spike went completely through her shoulder.

"Hehehe…I truly didn't think you were capable of such rage Sally," Matella painfully snickered. "But now I want to see how far you'll go." Matella staggered to her feet. She grabbed the piece of wood and with an agonizing cry, slowly pulled it out of her shoulder. She snapped the end off and started carving some intricate symbol onto her shoulder.

**_Close the distance. Strike her down._ **

Thorn's hands were quickly engulfed in blue energy. She crouched and then, enhanced by her magic, she jumped. Her feet left the ground and she soared through the air. Despite this amazing feat, Thorn focused solely on Matella. As she descended upon Matella like a hawk on a mouse, Thorn fired a particularly large fireball at the witch.

There was a brief flash of green light followed by something shattering and a thunderous boom. Thorn landed comfortably on her feet. Matella was on her back less than a foot away, her mask shattered and her face bruised; her shoulder was excessively bleeding and she couldn't move her left arm.

"Well," Matella said between coughs. "This isn't how I expected this to go, but I'm impressed."

Thorn just stared down Matella and she raised her hand. Fire erupted from her fingertips.

**_Kill her._ **

"What?" Thorn gasped.

Thorn shuddered and repeatedly blinked. She nervously looked around; her hand was on fire and she was standing over a brutalized Matella in a spot she didn't recognize.

"Did I…" Thorn stuttered.

Matella smirked. "You don't remember the last couple minutes, do you?"

Thorn slowly backed away from Matella, though she kept her arm raised to her.

_ I was going to kill her. _

Thorn trembled at this realization. Did Matella deserve it, perhaps, but it didn't matter. It was wrong and it went against the few remaining beliefs Thorn held onto. Yet, she couldn't get over the fact she wanted to kill Matella.

"That's one of the problems with blind rage, you don't remember what you do during it; that primeval instinct takes over and you lose control," Matella said, the pain in her voice was distinct. "Regardless, you should finish me off and get your first kill."

Thorn shook her head. "No," she said gasping. "I'm a Wiccan. Unlike you, I don't kill people, even if they deserve it." The fire died and Thorn lowered her hand.

Matella gave a pain-filled laugh. "That doesn't matter Sally. You're a witch and you'll kill someone inevitably; that's just the nature of magic and I know no mage who has escaped this. Do yourself a favor and kill someone you hate as it'll make it less emotional when you do it again."

"Shut up!" Thorn shouted. She saw a large piece of pew and with her telekinesis, dropped it onto Matella to keep her pinned down.

"Hehehe!" Matella laughed. "You're no different Sally and deep down, you know you'll do so to save Jane and Kim."

"SHUT UP!" Thorn shouted again. "I'm not a killer!"

"Not yet," Matella cackled.

As Matella went into a laughing fit, Thorn shook her and stumbled backwards. As she did, a jolt of pain struck her right leg. Thorn screamed as her leg buckled and she fell to the floor. She tried moving her leg, but the pain only intensified.

"What the fuck, I can't move my leg!" Thorn cried from pain.

"Oh. Looks like you tore something," Matella said from under the pew. "That's what happens when you're not trained or fit enough to make those inhuman leaps." There was a brief pause. "But that's another problem with blind rage, you're not immune to damage, you just can't feel it."

Thorn managed to sit herself up, but the pain was intense. _ I can't move like this.  _ Thorn looked back at the pews and telekinetically broke off a long vertical piece of wood. It flew to her and Thorn used it as a crutch. With the makeshift crutch and her good leg, Thorn shouted as she pulled herself back onto her feet. While not the perfect setup, it would have to do.

Thorn turned to her friends. They were laying down in the orb of energy and Thorn panicked when she noticed that they weren't moving. She hobbled as quickly as she could towards them.

"Where do you think you're going?"

Thorn came to a standstill. She turned around only to be struck by the piece of wood Matella had been trapped under. Thorn's crutch broke and she was knocked to the ground. Grunting from the pain, Thorn looked up only to see Matella standing not far from her; there was a bright red symbol glowing on her shoulder and Thorn watched in surprise as the wound closed itself up. Matella lurched forward before shrugging her formally injured shoulder.

"Gotta love healing spells," Matella said with a smile.

Thorn went to fire a bolt of energy at Matella but the sudden pressure on her bad leg caused her shout in pain.

"Unless you want to complete the ritual, don't bother fighting back or I'll break your leg off," Matella said and her telekinetic grasp on Thorn strengthened. Thorn screamed.

Matella raised her hand and four red chains materialized from the floor. They wrapped around Thorn's arms and legs and pulled her over to the pedestal.

"Okay, let's finish this spell," Matella reached into her pocket and removed a notecard with the spell written on it.

Thorn glared at the notecard and it caught fire, causing Matella to drop it.  _ I can still use magic. Good.  _ Thorn shrieked as her leg was violently twisted.

"Do anything like that again and you'll lose your leg AND your friends," Matella warned. The orb containing Dusk and Luna floated over to them. They were still laying there with their eyes closed, their chests slowly rising and falling with each shallow breath. Thorn sighed, at least they were still alive.

"Let's try this again," Matella grumbled as she removed a second notecard from her pocket. The notecard floated in front of Thorn and she could easily read it.

_ You have one chance to get this right. _ Thorn looked around the room, looking for anything she could use to escape. She saw her purse laying on the ground by the main aisle. At some point it must've slipped off her shoulder. While it was nice to find it, there wasn't anything in there that could help her. Her eyes came upon the final fresco on the ceiling.  _ How the fuck did you escape? _ She grunted as the Fallen had help from its followers. Thorn turned to her friends and sighed. Obviously, they were in no condition to provide aid. But her eyes widened as she noticed the glint of metal on the ground where her friends were originally captured.

_ Dusk's knife! She must have dropped it when she was captured.  _ Thorn could definitely use the knife but even with her telekinesis, Matella would surely notice it and intercept it. She still needed a surefire way to incapacitate or distract Matella.

"Sally…" Matella angrily said. Thorn shouted as her leg was twisted again.

"Okay fine, I'll do it," Thorn said and the pain lessened. Thorn stared at the notecard.  _ It's just to buy time until I can think of a plan.  _ "Do I need to say the whole thing again or just the end?"

"Just the end," Matella grunted.

Thorn cleared her throat. "Umm, can you move the card a little closer, I can't read it from here."  _ Come on Thorn, think! _

Matella sighed in frustration and the card moved closer to Thorn.

Thorn sighed. Saying anything else would only alert Matella to the fact that Thorn was planning something; the Wiccan had no choice but to start reciting the spell.

"With…faltering…breath and…fading…mind." She tried speaking the spell as slowly as possible but the dizziness and blurry vision returned.  _ Think! How can I get out? Could I use the knife on Matella? No, she'd definitely stop it. On the chains? _ She gave the chains a subtle tug to test their strength. She quickly realized that they weren't actually chains but rather were made up of magical energy.  _ Okay, the knife might actually work on them, but I still need to deal with Matella. _

"My final… act…I have… resigned." _ Okay, Matella looks like she's in good condition, so she could probably defend herself from any attack.  _ She paused and tugged again at her confinements.  _ Wait! That's it! I need to trap her.  _ Thorn frowned.  _ But how? _

"Hurry up," Matella said, interrupting Thorn's thoughts.

"Let… the…Cosmic…reawake." She started coughing. _ No, no, no. Hurry Thorn, think!  _ Her coughing slowed down.  _ Okay, um, pin her with the pews? No, she'd expect that from me? Uh, I don't know how to make the chains or the orbs Dusk and Luna are in, so those are out. Ugh! How can I fucking capture her!? _

"Sally!" Matella angrily shouted.

_ Shit! _ The Wiccan nervously glanced at the notecard.  _ How to capture her? How to capture her? Capture her. Cap… _ Thorn smirked. That was it. She had a plan.

"I pray…the Fallen," Thorn glanced at Matella. "My soul to—Capiō!"

Just as it happened to her when she was subdued by the security warlock, a pair of green rings of energy formed around a surprised Matella and incapacitated her. Thorn quickly glanced at Dusk's knife and the blade flew through air with enough force to cut through Thorn's restraints. Thorn dropped to the ground and grunted as she landed on her injured foot, but she powered through the pain and grabbed the pedestal to keep herself steady.

"Very good Sally," Matella said as she managed to rotate herself around. "Looks like you have the potential to be a great witch after all."

"Shut up! I'm not falling for any more of your tricks," the Wiccan shouted. She raised her arm to the subdued cultist, her hand engulfed in blue radiance. With a bit of telekinesis, Thorn knocked Matella to her knees.

"So what's next?" Matella taunted, unfazed that she was held at the magical equivalent of gunpoint.

"Let my friends go," Thorn demanded.

Matella rolled her eyes and Dusk and Luna were released. The two awoke when they hit the ground and were groaning.

"Looks like you get a second chance to be the executioner…" Matella calmly stated. "I suggest you take it this time."

It was incredibly tempting, especially knowing that Matella would likely try something again. But despite the rage she felt, she lowered her arm and the blue light faded.

"No. I already told you once, I don't kill people," Thorn said as she backed away from the still incapacitated witch.

Matella sighed, though Thorn wasn't sure if it was a sigh of relief or disappointment. The witch looked like she was in deep thought. Maybe she'd finally learn her lesson and change her ways; Thorn could only hope.

Thorn turned to her friends. "Are you guys alright?"

"Yeah, I think we'll be okay," Dusk said as she and Luna got back up. "I don't know what you did to beat her, but I wish you'd kill that bitch. I'd put her down if I was you."

"Well too bad you're not a witch," Matella mocked.

"I almost had you," the blonde replied through clenched teeth. She saw her knife floating next to Thorn and she grabbed it. "I'll finish you off right now!"

"Jane don't," Thorn said before things escalated.

Dusk frowned and she sheathed the knife.

"Okay, can we focus on getting out of here," Luna nervously said.

Thorn nodded. "Right. Um, my leg is busted, so I need some help walking."

Dusk and Luna quickly helped Thorn up.

"We should grab the key, we could use it as a bargaining chip if we encounter more cultists," Luna suggested.

Dusk nodded and tried to dislodge the key but despite her best efforts, the sphere remained firmly in place.

"This isn't working," Dusk stated.

"No kidding," Thorn replied.

"Just use telekinesis," Luna suggested.

Thorn stared blankly at the key for a moment. Why didn't she start with that? After regaining her composure, Thorn focused on the key. At first, the sphere only vibrated in place. But after a few seconds, the sphere began to turn. Like nails on a chalkboard, the sphere scrapped against its constraints before something snapped, causing Thorn to flinch. The beam vanished and the original wall reassembled itself over the glowing, red barrier so that no light remained.

Thorn carefully lifted the key out of the pedestal. As she did that, she felt restored; the lingering pain from her coughing fits vanished. She smiled. Things were getting even better.

"Let's get out of here," Thorn said. Dusk and Luna helped walk her down the center aisle toward the door. They briefly stopped to pick up Thorn's purse and they continued on with their escape.

"Sally, do you remember what I said about silver?" Matella called.

The three stopped dead in their tracks. Silver could nullify magic and Matella was subdued with magic… the sound of something resembling glass shattering shook her out of her thoughts. A few seconds later, she heard the familiar sound of a blue orb moving through the air. Despite the pain of standing on her bad leg, she swiftly pushed her friends out of the projectile's path. Then in a last ditch effort to save herself, she threw the key at the incoming blast of magic.

Thorn shielded her eyes from the small midair explosion. The key was pulverized and the resulting dust cloud quickly dissipated.

"Now Sally," Matella said as she approached the Wiccan as she returned a small, silver razor to a sheath hidden beneath her sleeve. "Where is the key?"

"Capiō!" Thorn shouted. But to her surprise, no incapacitating rings formed around Matella and the witch continued with her approach. Panicking, she threw another blue shot of energy at Matella. Thorn watched in horror as her attack harmlessly phased through the witch.

"What!?" Thorn gasped.

"You still have much to learn," Matella said with a smirk.

Thorn screamed as a blast of magical energy hit her from behind sending her plummeting to the ground. She tried to get up, but an unseen force pushed her back down and pinned her there. She heard the sound of boots landing on the ground from a great height followed by footsteps approaching her from behind. Thorn's eyes widened as a second Matella came into her line of sight.

"H-how?" Thorn questioned.

The second Matella laughed and snapped her fingers. The first "Matella" disappeared in a shower of sparks.

"Illusion spells," the real Matella stated. She sounded tired. "Now hand over the key."

It was Thorn's turn to smirk. "Can't. It was a pretty flimsy defense against your attack."

Thorn's snide remark was met with a swift kick to her head.

"You blasphemous piece of shit!" Matella screamed. "Do you have any idea what you've done!?"

"Yeah, I screwed over your plans," Thorn groaned, her head still throbbing from the kick.

Thorn found herself lifted into the air and thrown into a pew. In the process, her purse slipped off her arm. Matella picked up the handbag and rummaged through it as if she was looking for the key in there. Instead, Matella removed Thorn's journal and tossed the bag aside.

"So this is your journal, huh? The mages in Processing told me about it," the witch said flipping through it. She closed the book and it burst into flames.

A single tear fell down her cheek as she watched all her unfinished songs, herbal recipes, dreams and emotional outlet go up in smoke. Matella flung the burning book aside like a piece of trash.

"You ruined everything I had planned, so I'm going to take away everything you hold dear before I kill you," the witch coldly said as she turned to Dusk and Luna who were trying to hide behind a pew.

The witch raised her arm and her hand glowed dark red as energy swirled around it; Matella raised her arm to Dusk and Luna.

Tears streamed down Thorn's face as she scrambled to her feet. Her leg was killing her as she put weight on it but she didn't care. She stumbled her way between her friends and Matella. Thorn clasped her hands and Matella fired the laser-like beam of magic.

_ Please work _ .

The greenish glow of her magic shield provided a brief moment of comfort, a calm before the storm of pain. Thorn reeled back in agony as she felt like she was punched in the gut when the beam collided with the shield in a brilliant flash of light. Thorn fell onto her bad knee and screamed. She was panting and trembling from pain and exhaustion. The shield began to fracture.

_ No _ … She glanced at her friends. She grunted as she stood back up. She took a single, painful step forward. Then another. Despite the excruciating pain, she kept pushing back against the magical energy beam, slowly gaining ground. If she could get close enough, she'd counter-attack Matella. If not, she'd give her friends time to escape.

But a second laser slammed against the shield, pushing Thorn backwards. In a split second, she'd lost all the ground she gained and the shield was further cracked. She sobbed, the pain and exertion were overwhelming, she couldn't keep the shield up for much longer.

In the corner of her eye, Thorn noticed a blur of yellow and green. Dusk was moving along the pew and stood at the edge of the shield.

"Jane! Get back behind me! Please!" Thorn begged.

"Sally you need help," Dusk replied. She pulled something out of her sleeve and threw it at Matella before jumping back behind the shield.

"What the-!" the witch gasped as the familiar crack of a smoke pellet going off. A plume of green smoke surrounded the witch and Thorn could hear coughing. The energy beams stopped and Thorn cast away her damaged barrier.

"Let's get the hell out of here!" Dusk shouted as she hopped off the pew and helped Thorn toward the door.

Luna quickly helped Thorn and Dusk after briefly stopping to pick up the former's purse. But when they reached the exit, the doors swung open.

"Snare her," a male voice ordered.

Before Thorn could react, a long cable twisted through the air and quickly wrapped around her. There was a click and Thorn collapsed to the floor, more exhausted than before. She could only watch as armed guards swarmed around the three of them; Dusk and Luna quickly surrendered.

"Matella!" the same voice shouted. Thorn caught a glimpse of the man. He was similarly dressed like the other masked mages she'd seen except he was adorned in full crimson and gold regalia including a long cope decorated in strange runes, a large miter embodied with the eye symbol and several sashes. He reminded Thorn of the Pope.

"Zachariah, sir," Matella quickly said as she escaped the smoke. She sounded scared.

"Why is the ritual incomplete?" Zachariah questioned.

"Um…It was almost, uh…done sir," the witch weakly replied.

"But it's not and I don't see the key anywhere."

"It's…destroyed."

"So you've failed then."

Matella was silent.

"When you told us of your plan, I had high hopes for you. I let them get through Processing with ease despite their inability to follow directions and gave you access to everything you needed. Instead of completing the ritual like you were supposed to, you put on a spectacle fight that you nearly lost and allowed them to destroy the key," Zachariah continued. "I don't know why I even allowed you to go through with this plan. If you really cared about letting your brothers and sisters witness the Fallen, you would've volunteered yourself in the first place."

Zachariah looked down at Thorn and her friends. "Do you know who these girls really are?"

"Yes sir. Sally McKnight, Kimberly Moss and Jane Warren," Matella quickly responded.

"Do you know what Processing revealed about them?"

"Uh, no sir. I didn't receive their full background checks. "

"They're the members of the popular band The Hex Girls."

"Oh. Um, well, they can't be that popular, I've never heard of the band."

"Silence!" Zachariah raised his hand and Matella fell to her knees. "They're famous enough to be on a national tour right now, which means people will be looking for them and disposing of them will be complicated.

"But sir," Matella choked on the words.

"Not only have you failed our Lord, but you risk exposing us to the public by bringing them here. I had hoped you'd taken account of that, but clearly you didn't."

"Aww Matella, you bit off more than you can chew," a woman next to Zachariah mocked. Aside from the usual mage garb, she also wore some additional sashes.

"Enough Esmeralda," the Pope look-alike said. "As for you Matella, you will rebuild the key and complete the ritual yourself." Matella's face paled.

"No," a voice Thorn recognized muttered from the crowd forming behind Zachariah. Cyrus pushed his way to the front.

"Is there a problem Cyrus?" Zachariah asked.

He went to say something but stopped. Thorn noticed Matella subtly shake her head 'no'.

"Then it's settled. Matella will complete the ritual, supervised by Esmeralda and Marcus." He motioned for Esmeralda and another man dressed identically to her to step forward. "As for the Hex Girls, take them to the cells and we'll deal with them later," Zachariah ordered. He waved his hand and Thorn's vision blurred. She could just make out the outline of the guards approaching her before everything faded into nothingness.


	13. I'm Sorry

Dusk awoke first. She was laying on a cold, metal floor in a prison cell. She groaned as she sat up and the room spun around. _ Aw fuck. _ She closed her eyes and pressed her hand to her forehead. While she'd suffered far stronger hangovers before, her current condition was still rough. She crawled over to the cell bars and leaned against them. She took some time to collect herself, and unlike her hangovers, the throbbing in her head resided after a several minutes. More awake, she assessed her surroundings. Luna and Thorn were in the cell with her, the later still had the cable coiled around her; both were still passed out from whatever spell was cast on them.

The blonde reached for her knife and when she found the sheath empty, she frowned. She looked around the room a bit more. Aside from the cell, there was a table by a small door that had all their stuff on it. And that was it.

Dusk sighed. She crawled over to Thorn. Her friend was in terrible shape, far worse than she expected. Thorn's face was bruised and burnt while a gash crossed her forehead caking her bangs in blood. Her clothes were charred and stained with blood.

"Jeeze Thorn," Dusk sighed.

Thorn had put her life on the line fighting Matella to protect her and Luna and Dusk could only imagine what kind of torture the cultist put her friend through. But now Thorn was laying on the floor bleeding; she needed someone to help her.

"Hey Thorn wake up," Dusk said, giving her friend a gentle nudge. The Wiccan groaned, but wouldn't wake.

Dusk decided to check on the cable. It resembled a bike cable and there appeared to be silver intertwined within it. Dusk carefully turned Thorn onto her side. Much like a bike chain, the cable had a locking mechanism that was resting on Thorn's back. It was round with white hexagram on it. Dusk fiddled with it but it wouldn't open; she guessed it was magic.

Dusk frowned and she carefully turned the Wiccan onto her back. Having no luck with getting Thorn up, she made her way to Luna. The redhead was resting against the bars not far from them.

"Luna you need to get up," she said gently tapping Luna's face. The redhead shifted and mumbled something incoherent before passing back out.

"Damnit," Dusk muttered.

Creeeaaak!

Dusk turned her head as the door opened. A cultist entered the room pushing in a cloth-covered cart.

Dusk jumped to her feet and pounded on the cage.

"Let us out you bastard!" the blonde shouted.

The cultist ignored her and simply wheeled the cart next to the table and left the room. Dusk had a feeling that whatever was under the cloth wasn't good.

Dusk ran back to Luna. If anyone could figure a way out of this, it'd be Luna.

"Sorry about this, but you need to get up right now," Dusk said and she slapped her unconscious friend across the face.

"OWWW!" Luna screamed. She rubbed her face and groaned from the likely headache she had.

"Sorry, but you weren't getting up," Dusk hastily apologized as she went over Thorn. Dusk bit her lip and she hesitated. "Sorry Thorn." She slapped Thorn the same way she slapped Luna.

"WHAT THE FUCK!" the Wiccan shouted as she rolled onto her side.

"I'm really, really sorry Thorn, but we got problems," Dusk said, turning her attention to the opening door.

* * *

Thorn wanted to rub her cheek as she was pretty sure Dusk left a handprint there. In fact, her face hurt more than the headache. But the cable was still wrapped around her preventing her from doing so. Despite her physical condition, she was glad Dusk woke her up—even if her method of doing so was unpleasant—as four cultists stood outside the cell.

"Looks like they're awake," the first cultist said.

"Yeah, why don't you three sing us a song," a second cultist teased.

Dusk cursed them off, which elicited laughter from all but one of the cultists.

"Hehehe, blondie's cute when she's all riled up," the first cultist laughed.

Dusk pounded on the bars even harder, cursing up a storm; the three cultists continued to laugh.

"Dusk, ignore them," Thorn said as she managed to sit herself upright. Dusk backed away from the bars.

"Witchy you're no fun," the second cultist said. Thorn gave him no attention.

"Alright, don't make them sing. Their music is trash," the third cultist said while removing the cloth from the cart. Unfortunately, the cultist blocked Thorn's view of whatever he was organizing on the cart was on it.

"Well I've never heard their songs before," the second said.

The third cultist pulled out a phone and after a few moments, "Earth, Wind, Fire & Air" was playing.

"See. Preachy trash," the third cultist said.

"They're not that bad," the second countered. "Hey, George likes them."

The fourth cultist, who had previously been silent, was humming along to the song. Thorn quietly chuckled to herself as she watched the biggest of the four cultists enjoy the song.

"My daughter listens to them," George said, annoyed at his accomplices.

"Oh," the cultist with the phone said as he quickly stopped the music and they dropped the subject.

The cultists were quiet and just worked on whatever was on the cart. After a few minutes of work, the first cultist turned around and approached the cell with a gun drawn.

"Okay," he said, tapping the bars with the gun. "You girls like parties?"

Thorn shot her friends a confused glance. None of them expected that question.

"What's it to you?" Thorn grunted.

"Well, we made a few calls, casted a few illusion spells and…" he paused. "After a successful concert, you three were seen at a party in Albany. You all hit the booze and drugs a bit too hard and tomorrow we're all mourning the tragic loss of three young musicians to drug abuse."

Thorn's heart sank when she heard what the cultists planned to do to them; taking a bullet to the head was a preferable fate.

"You sick fucks," Thorn said, trying to hold back her tears.

"Not my call," the first cultist said matter-of-factly before returning to the cart.

Luna quietly curled up against the cell bars and sat in fetal position. She just looked at the ground, tired and defeated. Dusk slammed herself against the cell's door in a vain attempt to open it, swearing and threatening the cultists.

"Damnit! This stuff won't kill them fast enough," the third cultist said picking up a bottle of pills.

"Ugh, let's get the stronger stuff," the first cultist said.

The cultists left the room, with George briefly looking back at the Hex Girls before leaving.

Alone with her friends, Thorn could no longer hold back the flood of emotions that had been accumulating since the start of their occult nights; she cried.

"I'm sorry."

Tears rolled down her bruised and reddening face, mixing with the dry blood. Her heavy sobs caused her physical pain, but she didn't care, if anything she deserved it.

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."

"For what?" Dusk asked.

"For everything!" Thorn said between sobs. "For making you guys come here. For putting us in danger." She paused, her crying became too much. "For being selfish." She looked away from Dusk and Luna, too ashamed to even look at them. "We're going to die here, and it's all my fault."

"Don't say that," Dusk said. She sat down next to Thorn.

"Why not? It's true. I came here wanting to learn more about myself and now we're going to OD," Thorn sobbed.

"Sally, don't blame yourself for being human," Luna said breaking the somber silence that had formed. "Anyone in your shoes would want answers about themselves."

Thorn looked to her redheaded friend and shook her head. "But I still put us in danger."

"We chose to come here and put ourselves in danger," Dusk said, putting a hand on Thorn's shoulder.

"Besides," Luna added. "You put yourself in harm's way to save us from Matella; if you didn't do that, we'd already be dead."

Their attempts to comfort her were admirable, but Thorn was still full of guilt and self-hatred. She had been so caught up in her selfish desire to find answers about herself that she ignored all the warning signs and her friends suffered for it. Even if Dusk and Luna forgave her, she couldn't forgive herself for allowing this to happen.

"We'll figure a way out of this," Dusk said wiping Thorn's tears away for her.

Those words would be put to the test as the door opened and the cultists returned carrying small bags of round pills. The first cultist grounded them up, placed the powder in a glass and then filled it with cheap liquor. His colleagues made two more drinks.

"Who wants the first one?" the cultist mocked. The second cultist unlocked the cell door while pointing a handgun at the girls.

The three cultists entered the cell and George blocked the girls' sole escape route. Thorn tried to move away but with the snare and her bad leg, she didn't get far. She screamed as the first cultist grabbed her leg and dragged her closer to him. She tried tapping into her magic, but nothing manifested, not even telekinesis; it was like something was impeding her magic. Terrified, she kicked, flailed and shouted in a desperate bid to escape her assailant, but the cultist pinned her down with his weight. He shifted his weight onto Thorn's injured leg and she screamed even louder. Dusk and Luna came to her defense, hitting and punching the cultist. But Thorn's flicker of hope was snuffed out as her friends were torn away from her by the other two cultists.

"Open wide," the cultist said as he grabbed Thorn's chin to pry open her mouth.

She strained her neck trying to turn away from him, doing everything in her power to keep her mouth shut. Yet little by little, her mouth was opened.  _ Please. No.  _ She watched with teary eyes as the glass was raised to her lips.

BANG!

The spiked drink fell away from her and she felt something spray onto her face before the cultist collapsed onto her.

Bang! Bang!

Thorn laid on the floor shuddering. Her heartbeat was hastened and her breathing was shortened. She tried to wiggle free, but there was too much weight on her. She slowly raised her head to assess herself. She froze. He was sprawled across her with his head face down on her shoulder but that wasn't what troubled her. In a daze, she stared at the dark red spot slowly expanding across the back of his head. She wanted to look away, but she was transfixed by the disturbing sight.

Thorn flinched as the body was rolled off her by the hulking figure that was George.

"Thorn!" Dusk and Luna cried. Thorn barely heard them; she was fixated on the corpse.

Her friends helped Thorn to her feet.

"You okay?" Dusk asked.

Thorn blinked a few times, coming out of her horrid trance. She gave a small nod in acknowledgement. She glanced back at the corpse and noticed two more bodies next to it.

"Don't look at them," Luna said, forcibly turning Thorn away from the body and toward her and Dusk. Luna looked scared, Dusk was in better condition, though there was a hint of fear in the blonde's eyes.

Thorn began to whimper and her friends hugged her. Dusk wiped Thorn's face with her sleeve; it was stained with small streaks of blood. But Thorn didn't care about that nor did she care about the pain shooting up her leg. She leaned her head onto one of their shoulders and cried.

"It's okay," Luna softly said.

None of the Hex Girls said anything else as the Wiccan wept in the embrace of her friends.

"Let me unsnare her," George said, breaking the long silence.

Thorn paid him no attention as he fiddled with the lock and after a few moments, the snare fell off her. With her arms freed, she hugged her friends tightly, keeping them as close to her as possible.

"Why'd you save us?" Luna asked after several minutes; she released herself from the group hug though Thorn still clung fiercely to Dusk, still weeping.

Instead of answering, George pointed at Thorn's leg. "We need to heal her." He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small, clay tablet with a strange series of lines and marks that vaguely resembled a heart. "Sit her back down."

Dusk and Luna just nodded. Thorn shuddered and winced as they tried to help her sit back down.

"No," Thorn softly said as she gripped Dusk's arm tighter.

"Hey, you need to sit down so we can help you," Dusk said.

"Relax," Luna said, placing her arm around Thorn. "We're not going anywhere."

Thorn's cries softened and she allowed herself to be sat down by her friends.

"Lean back," George said to Thorn.

Thorn leaned back against the cold floor. She could see Dusk and Luna at her side, doing their best to keep a smile on their faces and mask their fears.

George knelt down and carefully removed Thorn's shoe and sock; the poor girl winced from the sudden jolt of pain. While she couldn't see the entire damage to her leg, she was horrified to see that her ankle was swollen and her foot was bent in an awkward position.

"Hold her still," George said to Dusk and Luna as he placed the clay tablet on Thorn's foot. "This is going to hurt."

He tapped the tablet and it immediately turned red. Thorn shrieked as she felt a surge of magic rush over her. She screamed and thrashed in agony; Dusk, Luna and George had to pin her down to keep her lashing out. The pain intensified around her ankle. There was a loud snap and her foot shifted into its correct position. The swelling rapidly declined until her ankle returned to normal, yet Thorn's screams only grew louder. The pain climbed up her leg as muscle and tendons reformed and reconnected. The pain continued to spread across her body, bruises, burns and cuts disappearing. Then with one last agonizing cry, the pain subsided and the tablet shattered.

Thorn whimpered as her friends helped her sit back up.

"You're looking pretty good now," Dusk teased in an attempt to lighten the mood.

Indeed, one couldn't physically tell Thorn had been in a fight, but the Wiccan's teary eyes told a different story.

Luna put Thorn's shoe and sock back on and shortly after, Thorn was back on her feet. Yet Thorn refused to let go of her friends and she hugged them again, her heavy sobbing the only sounds in the room.

"You wanted to know why I did it," George said after several minutes. There was a long pause. "I did it for my daughter."

Thorn glanced at the man. He removed his mask and threw it onto the floor. He was older, maybe late-forties or early fifties.

"What do you mean?" Luna inquired.

"I haven't seen her since my ex got full custody of her," George said, turning to the girls. "But the last thing I did with her was take her to one of your concerts. That was one of the happiest days of her life." He paused in recollection. "She loves you three. She'd listen to your songs all the time and she got her fashion sense from you. Hell, back when I had the house, she and her friends would dress up as you three and pretend to put on a concert in the basement."

He smiled. It looked like the first smile he made in years. He made eye contact with Thorn.

"She looked up to you the most," he said. "She has the red highlights and plays the guitar. But she'd also stand up for friends and strangers alike, really anyone who was pushed down." He paused. "After watching the security footage from the ceremonial room, I see where she got it from."

Thorn wiped away a tear, though it was more to hide the fact that she was blushing.

"Really?" Thorn finally said.

"Yeah," he sighed. "She's lost so much in recent years, I don't want her to lose her role models too."

Thorn was left speechless by George's tale. While she didn't know the full story behind the man and his daughter, it was enough to put extra pressure on her; not only had she had she put her friends in harm's way, but her actions nearly crushed an innocent girl's way of life, whose existence would've never crossed her mind. Thorn lowered her head; she even started to feel bad for the guy she took the car from. She didn't feel like the confident and brave woman she portrayed herself as on stage but rather a selfish, reckless girl who was in way over her head.

"You three need leave," George said exiting the cell and the Hex Girls followed him.

The girls retrieved their belongings and George directed them to the far wall of the room. He hit a switch on the wall and a secondary door opened.

"These passageways are for quickly transporting the most dangerous magical artifacts and creatures," George said, gesturing for them to enter. "It'll take you to a storage room. Exit the room, go right and stay straight until you can't go any farther. The halls should be empty aside from a few guards as most people will be at the Revelation." He gave the girls a moment to memorize the directions. "There will be another hidden door there. Move quietly through the passage as you'll be adjacent to the ceremonial room and you can hear people through those walls. If you can get through that, you'll be home free."

When he was finished, he leaned up against the wall and poured himself a drink. He quickly downed it and then poured another.

Thorn and her friends hurried to the passage. Dusk took the lead and disappeared in the darkness. Thorn stopped and looked back to George.

"Thank you for saving us," Thorn meekly said. It was the least she could do given her current emotional state.

George nodded. "Believe in yourself. Others do, even if you don't. Don't fail 'em like I did." He finished his second drink.

"What are you going to do?" Luna asked.

"Don't worry about it," he replied as he placed his handgun on the cart before staring off into space. "Get outta here before they check up on us."

"Why don't you come with us?" Thorn quietly said, just loud enough for George to hear.

George shook his head and poured himself a third drink which he quickly downed. "Even if I escape, these people don't forgive and they don't forget betrayal; they'll hunt me down till I'm dead and they'll go after my daughter to get to me. It's better for everyone if you just left me behind."

Thorn lowered her head. This man she didn't know gave up everything for her and all Thorn could do was say 'thank you.' She wiped away another tear and entered the darkness, with Luna following close behind. The redhead hit the switch and the door closed, leaving the three girls in complete darkness. Thorn barely made it ten feet when she heard a single gunshot go off, causing her to flinch. She felt sick. Four people were dead. And it was all her fault.


	14. A Downtrodden Escape

Using her phone's light, Dusk illuminated the corridor. Strange markings were inscribed on the walls and silver bars ran along the entire passage. If they weren't in a hurry, Luna and Thorn would've made her stop and help them identify the symbols. Yet she still had to slow her pace and let her friends catch up to her.

"Hurry up," Dusk called out to her friends.

"We are!" Luna shouted, the panic in her voice was distinct.

"Damnit," Dusk muttered to herself. She felt bad for her friends as neither were in good condition. While Luna was certainly the better of the two at handling their situation, she still looked like she was on the verge of a panic attack; knowing Luna, she was probably thinking of every way their escape plan could go wrong and was overwhelmed by the stress. Thorn, understandably, was in terrible shape. She'd been through so much and Dusk knew the poor girl was moments away from crying. Unfortunately, both girls in their present conditions would make escaping difficult.

"Ugh…just keep close to me and keep quiet," Dusk grunted.

They continued through the dimly lit corridor at a frustratingly slow pace. Dusk could hear Luna's footsteps right behind her but Thorn was a problem. Dusk stopped as she heard Thorn's sniffles grow distant. She turned around and saw that Thorn was trailing behind. Dusk ran to Thorn and grabbed her hand.

"We need to move faster," Dusk said. The Wiccan stumbled forward as Dusk pulled her along the dark passageway.

Fortunately, the corridor came to an abrupt end after a few minutes. Dusk found the switch and the wall slid open a few moments later. She looked over the room. There were several large crates and barrels stacked up. Once Dusk confirmed that it was empty, she led her friends into the room.

"Wait here," Dusk said as she stopped by some crates. Luna nodded and Thorn sat down on one of the crates.

Dusk made her way to the door and crouched below the window. Cautiously, she cracked open the door and peeked outside. She smiled and fully opened it.

"We're clear, if we run we can make it," she called to her friends.

Regrouped, they followed George's directions and took off down the hall with Dusk taking the lead. They made it to an intersection when Dusk stopped and pulled her friends into a nearby doorway.

"What's happening?" Luna nervously asked.

Dusk hushed her and blocked her friends with her arm to prevent them from leaving or leaning forward. The footsteps grew louder as they approached and Dusk heard a conversation between two individuals.

"Did you know that the Feds just sentenced those SALF scientists?"

"Wait, you mean the guys who dressed up as those broccoli-headed aliens?"

"Yep. They got ten years. Who knew a dog's testimony would land them in prison?"

"Damn. Didn't they claim to see real aliens?"

Two assault rifle toting guards who looked like they should be patrolling a military base in Afghanistan rather than a cult lair came into view laughing.

"Aliens. Ha. I'll believe it when I see it!"

Dusk sighed with relief as the guards continued walking straight down the hall. Once they cleared the intersection, the blonde crept out from the doorway and motioned Luna and Thorn to follow her. But as she reached the center of the intersection, she froze. There was radio chatter. Something about prisoners escaping. Use of deadly force permitted.

"Copy that. Will investigate."

_ Shit!  _ Dusk scowled as she turned around and ran back to the door.

"Get inside," she said with haste. Thorn barely had the door open before Dusk pushed her and Luna inside, the keyboardist and guitarist falling to the ground. Dusk rushed inside, shut the door and locked it. She braced herself against the door and expected the worst.

But the worse never happened. She heard the guards run past the door, likely heading to the storage room. She slumped to the ground, back against the door, and sighed. The cultists knew they were missing and Dusk was certain that it was only a matter of time before they were discovered.

The drummer stood up and cracked open the door. They were in the clear…for now.

"Alright get up, we need to move," Dusk stated.

"They know we escaped," Luna gasped.

"We're dead," Thorn wept.

The blonde rubbed her temples and angrily sighed. The stress was starting to get to her. They were like two hapless children that she had to carry around, and their inaction was only causing more problems. "Can you two cut it with that shit!? You both need to pull up your big-girl pants and do something productive with our situation."

Luna and Thorn glanced away from Dusk before Luna spoke. "We need a better plan."

Dusk snapped. "Well Kim we don't have a better one and we don't have time to sit around and come up with a new plan. So unless you secretly have something else, you can just shut up and follow my lead!"

Luna lowered her head.

"Don't talk to her like that," Thorn said between sobs.

"Sally you need to stop with the self-loathing because your guilt trip is going to get us all killed!" Dusk shouted. "I need you to be that badass witch who fought Matella. If you're not going to do that, then like I said to Kim, you can shut up and follow my lead."

Luna and Thorn slowly got up, both taken back by Dusk's outburst. The blonde sighed; she couldn't recall a time when she lashed out at her bandmates so harshly. It pained her to do so, but Luna and Thorn needed to hear it.

"I'm sorry," Dusk said while lowering her voice in an attempt to calm herself down. "I know neither of you are taking this well, but I can't keep dragging you guys around. I need you two to get your heads in the game so we can survive this, okay? We can cry after we escape."

"No you're right," Luna said. Her voice was softer, almost like a whisper. "We have to stay calm and focused."

Dusk looked at Thorn. There was so much pain behind her emerald eyes and Dusk pitied her. She knew what that was like as memories from long ago trickled into view; Dusk quickly brushed them aside and focused on surviving their present ordeal.

"I'll…I'll try," Thorn said, wiping her eyes.

Dusk smiled. That was all she could ask of her.

The blonde led them out of the room. The hallway was still empty, so they ran. They ran as fast as they could past the intersection, past mysterious rooms and derivative halls. She could see the end of the hall, where it intersected a perpendicular one. They were so close, all they had to do was find the switch and sneak past whatever the Revelation was.

Dusk looked behind her to make sure her friends were there. She gave them a wink; everything was going well. Unfortunately, Dusk didn't see the last door on the right open nor did she see the hooded individual step out. The cultist also failed to see the running blonde girl.

Dusk found herself on the ground and her head hurt. She groaned and slowly sat up.  _ Oh shit. _ In front of her was a cultist trying to stand back up. She quickly eyed the knife on his belt and noticed that the cultist was reaching for it.

Acting more on instinct than rational thought, Dusk climbed to her feet and charged at the cultist, tackling him to the ground. She punched the cultist's face, a move she instantly regretted. Her bare fist hit the metal mask and she reeled back in pain clutching her throbbing hand. Grunting, the cultist shoved Dusk off him and drew his knife.

"I could use some fucking help here!" Dusk shouted from the floor as the cultist lunged at her with the knife. She managed to roll out of the way and his momentum made him stumble past her. Dusk scrambled to her feet as the cultist swung back around with the knife raised. In a downward swing, he tried to strike Dusk but the blonde managed to grab his arm and she held back the attack. But the cultist was strong and he pushed her against the wall.

"HELP!" Dusk yelled as she struggled to keep the knife away from her.

Dusk watched as Thorn panicked and thrust her arm forward. The blonde gasped as she and her assailant were hit with a tremendous force. This must've been what getting hit by a car felt like as Dusk and the cultist were hurled down the remainder of the hall like a pair of rag dolls before coming to rest mere inches from the wall.

"Fuck Thorn! You're causing more harm than this asshole is!" Dusk shouted as she rubbed her now bruised thigh. As the pain slowly subsided, she noticed how close her head was to the wall. If she had collided with the wall at the speed Thorn launched her…Dusk shuddered.

"I'm sorry," Thorn cried as she covered her face and turned away from the fight.

Dusk sighed. Thorn still wasn't thinking clearly and if she didn't start soon, Dusk wondered if deranged cultists were the greatest threats here.

The tug of her leg reminded her that the cultist was still dangerous. With her free leg, she kicked him in the face, knocking him back. But the cultist recovered quickly and rearmed himself with the knife. He made another lunge and once again Dusk was able to catch his arm. But unlike last time, Dusk was on the ground and the cultist used his weight to his advantage. Her arms buckled and the knife fell closer to her chest.

"Luna! Can you help me!?" Dusk screamed as the knife fell closer to her.

* * *

"Shit, shit, shit!" Luna mumbled as she pulled on her hair. The cultist had Dusk pinned and Thorn was a trembling mess after her magical mishap almost gave their periled friend a serious head injury.  _ I don't know what to do. _ She couldn't hold herself in a brawl and she didn't have any magic or weapons. She felt completely useless. She anxiously looked around in search of anything that could possibly be of use. And then she spotted it.

Next to the doorway the cultist had emerged from was a metal trash can.  _ This isn't going to work.  _ She didn't have time to weigh the pros and cons of weaponizing a trash can. She sprinted toward the can and grabbed the round, metal lid.

She ran to her friend and with one strong swing, bashed the cultist in the head with the lid. He shouted and his grip on Dusk loosened.

"Fuck you!" Dusk yelled at the cultist as she kicked him in the groin. The assailant screamed in agony and fell over, writhing in pain. The blonde climbed to her feat.

"Thanks Captain America," Dusk teased. Luna still wielded the dented lid like the aforementioned comic book hero. She rolled her eyes and tossed the lid aside.

"Do you really need to make jokes at a time like this?" Luna said.

"Yup," Dusk replied, grabbing the cultist's knife. "But if you want to get serious, we need to kill this guy."

Luna was shocked at how quickly Dusk went from irksome teasing to suggesting murder. She watched as Dusk knelt down and prepared to slit the cultist's throat. Yet the sight before her didn't trouble her. If anything, it calmed her and she almost felt like she was enjoying it. She did nothing but watch as Dusk went in for the kill.

"DON'T!"

Both girls turned to Thorn.

"Please don't," she softly repeated.

"But we can't just leave him here!" Dusk replied. "He'll go get help and then we're screwed."

Luna sighed. "She's not wrong…" The redhead stopped when she realized what she just said.  _ I just condoned murder. _ She didn't have time to dwell on it as Thorn slowly approached them.

"Please don't." Thorn pleaded. "Don't become them. You're both better than that."

Luna had to give Thorn credit for sticking to her Wiccan principles despite the circumstances. As Luna had shown herself, she couldn't do the same with her own morals. She and Dusk jumped right to murder when they had the advantage, just like the cultist. Luna sighed and lowered her head in shame.  _ Am I really this bad? _

Dusk bit her lip and shot glances between the cultist and Thorn.

"Damnit!" Dusk threw the knife down the hall.

"Alright," Luna said, trying to reduce the tension. "We can't just leave him here. We should tie him up." She and Dusk both looked at Thorn.

"Capiō," Thorn sighed before shying away from the man. A pair of green rings formed around him, ensuring he couldn't use his arms or legs.

"We still gotta gag him or knock him out so he can't call for help," Dusk said. She grabbed the trash can lid and hit him over the head with it. He groaned a few times before slumping to the ground.

"Now what?" Luna asked.

Dusk rummaged through his robes and pulled out a wallet and some papers; Thorn gave her a disapproving look but said nothing.

"He tried to kill me, so I'm taking his money," Dusk grunted as she pocketed some cash from his wallet. She briefly looked over the papers and tossed them away.

"What do they say?" Luna asked, wondering if it could provide useful information about the facility.

"I don't know, something about a loan and his witch daughter enrolling into some school," the blonde replied before she started rummaging through his pockets looking for anything of value.

The redhead picked up the papers and skimmed through them. The first document was a request for a loan from the cult totaling $60,000 which was evidently granted. The second was an acceptance letter for a young witch to Miss Grimwood's Finishing School for Ghouls. Luna raised an eyebrow.  _ Weird name for a school _ …Luna shook her head and returned the papers to the unconscious man's pocket; there were more pressing matters to worry about than some unknown school.

"Shouldn't we move him out of the way?" Luna finally said. "You know, so nobody sees him."

"Hmm. Yeah I guess so," the blonde replied.

The two of them dragged the cultist into the room he came from and closed the door as they left. It wasn't the most effective way to hide someone and he could certainly break out of his confinement if he had silver, but it was their only option.

With the cultist disposed of, the three musicians made their way to the wall where George said there was a hidden door. They searched the wall and they found a small triangle. Luna tried pushing, turning and pulling the shape but nothing happened.

"I think we need magic for this," Luna said to Thorn.

The black-haired girl sighed and raised her hand to the symbol. Just like the mausoleum, a blue circle formed between the triangle and her hand. She turned the circle and the wall slid away.

"Great work," Luna said, trying to cheer up her friend. Thorn looked at the ground and backed away from the door, saying nothing to the redhead.

"What's wrong?" Luna asked.

"Nothing," the Wiccan mumbled. She followed Dusk into the passageway.

Luna grabbed Thorn by the arm and asked Dusk to wait. "No, something's wrong with you."

Thorn pulled her arm away. "Just drop it!"

"No, you need to tell us what's wrong," Luna demanded.

Luna wasn't sure if Thorn was going to cast a spell on her or start crying.

"Fine! You wanna know what's wrong with me!? I'm a witch who almost killed her friend! If Dusk was a foot closer to the wall…" Thorn didn't finish the thought.

"But you didn't." Dusk's voice surprised Luna as she stepped out from the doorway. "I called for help and you tried to help me. Despite what I said earlier, I'm not mad at you for that."

Thorn went to say something but Dusk shushed her.

"You made one bad call, big deal; I made the mistake of punching the guy's mask and he could've killed me after that but you don't see me sulking around," Dusk said. "Accept your mistakes, learn from them and move on. Just don't feel sorry for yourself."

_ Damn…  _ Luna thought. Thorn was also taken back by the blonde's comments.

"Now can we get the hell outta here?" Dusk said, turning her back to her friends and entering the hidden passage.

Shrugging, Luna followed Dusk into the unknown, with Thorn close behind. The Wiccan closed the door and released the spell. They were then consumed in darkness.


	15. I'm a Hex Girl!

They didn't get far before the harmonious melody of chanting could be heard throughout the corridor. It had a mystical and sublime feel to it, like a choir singing in religious fervent. Thorn found the mysterious chants soothing and relaxing; it cleared her mind and put her in an almost meditative-like state as she walked along.

She focused on Dusk's words. _Accept your mistakes, learn from them and move on_ . She didn't need a reminder that she made a ton of mistakes over the course of the night. The latest—nearly cracking open Dusk's skull against a wall— fueled her guilt, self-hatred and anxiety. _I let those emotions take control of me and it nearly cost me my friend._

She knew she couldn't bottle them up, as that could be disastrous nor could she continue to let them overwhelm her. Instead she asked herself why she felt those emotions. _Because I put my friends in danger. Because I'm a threat to them. And because I don't know if I can save them._

She trembled ever so slightly. As she noticed her involuntary movements, she clenched her fists and stopped walking. _You're feeling sorry for yourself. Don't. It's what's letting your friends down._ She was caught in a vicious feedback loop and she needed to escape it. For Dusk and Luna. For herself.

The chanting grew louder and Thorn could understand some of the words.

"Ah! That day of tears and praising

From the dust of Earth renewing

Mages for the new world prepare them

Choose, Fallen, in mercy choose them

Cosmic, all-defending, Fallen blest

Grant us our desired dreams. We pray"

The chanting came to an end and with it, Thorn's self-reflection.

"Check it out," Dusk whispered as she crouched by the wall. There was a single crack long enough for all three girls to catch a glimpse of the ceremony.

"This must be the Revelation that George mentioned," Luna reasoned.

Thorn knew she had to keep moving, but she felt compelled to stop and watch. She tried to fight this urge, but her curiosity got the best of her and she crouched down next to Dusk and looked through the crack. It was the same room where Matella almost tricked her into sacrificing herself but instead of an empty chamber, the pews were filled with cultists.

Her attention quickly turned to the pedestal area. There were three individuals— Zachariah, Esmeralda and Marcus by the looks of it—standing around the pedestal containing a second key. A fourth cultist dressed in a simple hooded robe, knelt before the large, black crystal. But more importantly, Thorn saw that the wall of red energy was gone. _They did the ritual which means…Matella's gone._ There was no joy or glee, spite or pity. Despite everything Matella did to Thorn and her friends, she felt nothing, absolutely nothing, knowing that the witch was dead. Thorn simply repositioned herself so she could get a better view of what was happening in the ceremonial room.

"Hear our prayers, O Lord," Zachariah began as he faced the great crystal. "For you the most righteous and just."

There was a brief moment of solemn silence.

"Your memory is kept alive through us, for we recall that you alone of the Great Cosmics stood up for us mere mortals. You fought against the blinding Light for a just universe, a universe made in your own image, one where all were equal. We recall the Broken's betrayal and how He let the Light consume all. You, O Great Defender, were cast unjustly into Confinement and your followers were driven mad. But we know you shall rise again and bring justice against the Light and those who betrayed you."

"May the Fallen rise again," the congregation prayed.

Zachariah turned to the congregation. "We are the instruments of the Fallen, doing his work on the Earth. Like our Lord, we too were betrayed by one of our most wise. Yet our Sister, Matella, so willingly gave her life to break Alexander Levre's spell so our Lord may deliver his Revelation."

 _Willingly._ Thorn rolled her eyes. She wondered what the congregation would think if they knew the truth.

"With his Revelation we will learn what must be done to free our Lord from his imprisonment," the lead cultist turned to the crystal.

"O Mighty Cosmic, take this vessel so that you may walk the Earth again and share with us your insightful wisdom so we may free you." Zachariah paused as she raised his hands in praise. "Fallen One, I invoke your name, rise again and Revelation do proclaim!"

Thorn felt a chill go down her spine as the air became heavy and the light in the room dimmed. The crystal slowly expanded and retracted like a beating heart, pumping a black, inky substance that seeped out of the structure. Black energy radiated from the inky liquid and spiraled around the crystal, though Thorn could've swore she saw flashes of gold and crimson hiding behind the blackness.

 _I seeee yoouuuu Saaallllyyy_.

Thorn froze. The voice—inhuman and powerful, yet full of arrogance—was in her mind, taunting her. She wanted to back away from the crack, she was paralyzed with fear.

The dark energy spiraled around in the air and formed a massive cloud that descended onto the mortal vessel. The individual jolted and trembled before becoming still.

"Lord…is that you?" Zachariah asked.

With a wet pop, the victim exploded in a shower of blood and flesh, coating Zachariah and the other two cultists in a red paste while members of the congregation screamed. Thorn covered her mouth and looked away, swallowing the rising bile and stopping herself from vomiting.

"W-what is wrong O Lord?" Zachariah questioned. Even from a distance, Thorn could tell how terrified the warlock was.

The black cloud descended and engulfed the lead cultist. He clutched his head and fell to the ground screaming. His two associates watched haplessly as Zachariah writhed in agony on the floor, his cries for help unanswered as his hat and mask fell off.

Like the previous cultist, Zachariah's body went limp and the screams stopped. But unlike last time, the black energy consolidated around the warlock's body, giving him a blackish gleam, while a flicking black beam of energy seemed to tether the body to the crystal.

Thorn flinched as the body was suddenly pulled onto its feet. It stretched its arms and yawned, like it just woke up from a long nap, which for all Thorn knew, it did.

"Ahhhh…it feels soooo nice to be back in this reality, even if I am in a vessel," it exclaimed as its eyes glowed bright gold and crimson. It sounded like Zachariah, but Thorn noticed that the voice off. It was slightly higher pitched and there was this distinct unnaturalness to it that creeped her out.

The being observed the crowd with waning interest before tapping its head in frustration.

"Zachariah," it growled to itself. "First you, let Alexander put up that fucking barrier for twenty years. Then you insult me by offering some nobody for my vessel and now you're annoying me with your pitiful cries; I've lost my patience with you."

Thorn gasped and jumped back upon hearing the sickening snap of the being's neck as its head spun around in a full three-hundred and sixty degree turn. It joyfully smiled.

"And now you're dead," it mocked. "Look at that, I've been here for thirty seconds and I'm already answering prayers. Congratulations, Esmeralda. You're now in charge of this temple, just like you've always wanted." It picked up the miter and tossed the headwear to Esmeralda before turning to the second cultist. "And that means you Marcus get to be second-in-command."

The two bowed down before the entity.

"Thank you O Great Cosmic," they said, though Thorn knew they were terrified.

"Ah, I appreciate the groveling, but there's no need for it; get up and be proud yourselves for your devotion and hard work," the Fallen cheerfully said. The two cultists stood up and were turned by the Fallen to face the crowd. "Come on everyone, give these two a big round of applause."

The congregation clapped and cheered for the two cultists, though Thorn couldn't shake the feeling they were only clapping because the Fallen told them to.

"I'm in such a great mood, I think all my worshipers deserve a reward," the Fallen cheered. Gold and silver coins started raining down from above. The congregation members began grabbing handfuls of coins and stuffing them into their pockets.

"This guy doesn't seem so bad," Dusk whispered.

"You do realize he just killed two of his worshipers?" Luna whispered back.

Thorn just shook her head. The Fallen was certainly nothing like she expected, but the way she felt when it spoke to her was unnerving and unlike with Matella, Thorn was keeping track of all the red flags she saw.

"The fuck is that!" the Fallen angrily shouted, its eyes radiated a gold and crimson light. The coins stopped falling and the entity was scowling at the ceiling. "What in my name are those two doing up there?" It turned to the middle fresco and snarled. "She's the most narcissistic, self-righteous prick that's ever existed. I mean, she gets to hold the keys to my prison and suddenly she's the most important thing in the universe; blah, she's just a glorified keyring who doesn't deserve the recognition." The fresco just disappeared, as if it was never there in the first place.

"And him!" the Fallen bellowed. "That traitorous bastard…" The image of the Broken crumbled into dust. The Fallen looked at the last fresco and simply nodded in approval before turning its attention back to the congregation.

"Alrighty then," the entity happily said while clasping its hands together. "I suppose I should probably deliver my revelation, if I'm going to be truly free." Thorn was taken back by how quickly the Fallen went from seething anger to this happy-go-lucky persona.

Thorn's eyes widened in complete surprise as the Fallen reached into the air and pulled down a giant projector screen from, _literally_ , nowhere. The Fallen stepped aside and the screen lit up; "Revelation: How to Break Me out of My 'Eternal' Prison."

"Is…is this really a slide show?" Thorn muttered to herself in confusion.

The screen changed to a picture of the final fresco on the ceiling.

"Now you're all probably thinking, 'Oh Awesome Cosmic, who is better than the others in every conceivable way, why aren't the Light Ones annihilated and the universe remade if you're free?'" the Fallen said. "The answer is because this is just step one of the jailbreaking process; we still have steps two through ten to deal with."

The next slide showed a stone complex consisting of several circular walls and giant T-shaped megaliths with animal, humanoid and abstract carvings on it. Thorn noticed that the image was titled "Göbekli Tepe."

"Right before I was unjustly imprisoned, one of my spies managed to steal a set of documents containing critical information about my prison from the Light Ones," the Fallen explained. "We managed to make this crystal for communicating with this reality, but unfortunately before we could do anything else, my spy had to hide those documents at this temple to prevent the Light Ones from finding it. This leads to step two…" The image switched to a single line of text reading 'retrieve documents from the temple.'

"This should be simple: just go to the temple, tell the mages there you need the sacred texts, and they'll happily give them to you," the Fallen said. "Any questions before I move on?"

A warlock in the front row raised a trembling hand. "Um…Lord…it's just…uh-"

"Go on spit it out," the Fallen said with an annoyed frown.

The warlock swallowed. "It's just that, uh, that site hasn't been active in nearly twelve-thousand years; it's an archaeological site now."

The Fallen sighed. "Well fuck." The entity briefly looked around the room. "I keep forgetting you monkeys only get like thirty seconds to exist and then poof, you're all gone." The Fallen scratched its head. "Okay, um, why don't you call one of the other temples and have them send people to go dig those documents up."

The warlock nervously looked at the Fallen. "Um, right now Lord?"

Thorn heard the doors to the ceremonial room swing open.

"Uh yeah," the Fallen replied.

Thorn watched as the warlock quickly ran down the aisle and disappeared from view. She heard the door slam shut and Fallen adjusted its sashes.

"With that taken care of, are there any other questions from the congregation?" the Fallen asked.

There was nothing but silence from the cultists.

"Good. How about you girls, do you have any questions?"

Thorn jumped back in horror as the being's head abruptly turned to them with a sinister grin on its face. The girls tripped over each other in a panicked bid to escape. But as Thorn tried to run farther down the passageway, she found a stone wall blocking them from either side.

"How!?" Thorn gasped.

"Don't hide in the shadows girls."

Thorn turned and saw that the flimsy wall separating the girls from the ceremonial room was simply…gone. In its place, the Fallen stood over them smiling, its eyes glowing a deep gold and crimson before returning to normal.

"Don't be surprised Sally, I did tell you I could see you," the Fallen nonchalantly said.

Thorn's heart was racing. Dusk and Luna were cowering behind her back. They needed her to protect them. With adrenaline and magic pumping through her, Thorn hurled two blasts of blue energy at the Fallen. But to her dismay, it still stood there, unfazed by the explosive magic.

"Capiō!" she cried. The green rings formed around the being, but upon touching its vessel, the rings shattered. But her desire to protect her friends burned and Thorn manifested this desire as a stream of fire she blasted at the Fallen. But the flames caused no visible damage to the entity or even its clothing.

"You done?" it asked, seemingly more annoyed than anything else.

Thorn thrust her arm forward. Dust was picked up by the telekinetic blast, but the Fallen remained firmly in place. She stood there mouth agape, defeated and out of options.

"That's better," it said. It snapped its fingers and the four of them were at the pedestal.

The screen was gone and all eyes were on them; several cultists seemed to recognize them, for what that was worth. Luna was in complete terror and while Dusk looked calmer, Thorn could see the fear behind her eyes. Thorn quickly looked at the doors.

"Ah, you're gonna try to escape," the Fallen said with a smile. "Here, let me lend you a hand with that."

The doors swung open. Without hesitation, Thorn took off down the aisle with Dusk and Luna behind her. None of the cultists stopped them as they reached the door. Thorn went through the doorway, turned right and she gasped as she found herself back at the pedestal.

"What the fuck!?" Dusk cried as she and Luna appeared behind Thorn.

"No, no, no, no," Thorn muttered as she ran down the aisle again. Once she reached the doorway, she tried going in the other direction but she still ended up back at the pedestal.

"Keep on running Sally, maybe you'll get a different result the third time," the Fallen cheered as the doors slammed shut.

Thorn clenched her fists and she spun around. The Fallen was leaning against the pedestal eating popcorn in an almost mockingly fashion.

"What do you want with us?" Thorn said with as much courage she could muster.

"Who said I wanted anything from you," it responded with a mouthful of popcorn.

"If you didn't want something, we'd be dead already," Thorn replied.

The entity smirked and it tossed the bag of popcorn over its shoulders where it just vanished. It raised its hand to her. Thorn closed her eyes, expecting the end. But instead of oblivion, it patted her on the head like she was a puppy that just performed a trick.

"Well for starters, I wouldn't be able to interact with this reality if it weren't for you three," the Fallen said with a shrug.

"So what, we freed you and you're going to reward us?" Dusk interjected.

The Fallen turned to the blonde. "Freedom!? What kind of freedom requires wearing a meat suit! I'm just an emanation; an infinitesimally small fragment of what I truly am. But with you three, I can become absolutely free."

That didn't make any sense. The Fallen had an entire organization at its beckoning. Thorn had no idea what she and her friends could possibly offer.

The Fallen seemed to sense her confusion and chuckled.

"Oh Sally my dear, you crack me up," the Fallen said with a hearty laugh. "So I'll be blunt: you three have a lot of potential; you've not only taken on powerful enemies but you three escaped your own executions, all without any training and I find that admirable." The Fallen's gaze shifted to Thorn and she felt her body tense up.

"Watching you fight Matella was a sight to behold; the raw power and skill you have is simply amazing. Granted, you're still very rough around the edges and you still have all this emotional baggage, but I can work with that," the Fallen explained with a giant grin. "Which is why I'm offering you, Kim and Jane the opportunity of your lives: submit yourselves to me, serve me and become the instruments of my freedom. Then after I stomp out the Light Ones, I'll give you girls' seats at the top of the new universal order. You'll be able to do whatever your hearts' desire, I mean it."

Thorn backed away from the entity and turned to her friends for guidance. Dusk shrugged; she had no idea what to do. Luna shook her head, though her expression read 'I don't know' rather than 'don't do it.' Thorn bit her lip and looked away from everyone. Someone else had already sold her a nearly identical promise that ended up being empty, and she almost died for it. But this was an actual deity making the offer; there were no cultists or mages to lie or distort the Fallen's word.

Yet, this was still the Fallen, the leader of the Dark Ones, who killed its own worshippers for being an inconvenience. For all Thorn knew, she was making a deal with the devil.

"But you're a Dark One, you're evil," she weakly replied.

"Oh please, that's just propaganda against me cause I lost the war. Hell, 'The Fallen' isn't my actual name, it's just a title that was unceremoniously dumped on me," the entity said, its voice full of indignation. "I'm not a god of darkness and evil, or some Lovecraftian nightmare nor am I that bratty archangel with daddy issues; there is no reason to fear me."

Thorn shook her head, more so in confusion than rejection.

"Hmm. Maybe the 'whatever you want' is a bit too vague," the Fallen said while rubbing its chin. "Perhaps we need to get a little more specific."

The entity smiled and it was suddenly right next to her.

"So what is it that you desire Sally McKnight?" It looked over her; she felt like it was examining her, looking for a weakness.

"How about I stop climate change and eliminate pollution; I can even bring entire species back from extinction." The entity raised a closed hand to Thorn. The Fallen opened its hand and Thorn saw a flash of blue and purple; the tiny wings flapped a few times before the butterfly left the Fallen's hand. Thorn watched in awe as the butterfly gracefully fluttered past her.

"That…That's a Xerces Blue," Thorn stammered.

The Fallen nodded.

The Xerces Blue went extinct in the 1940s, yet Thorn was watching one fly around the room. It was incredible, a miracle even. But as the butterfly flew farther away, Thorn couldn't shake the feeling of discomfort she felt; it was like there was a tiny voice screaming in the back of her mind to run away.

"Not enough for you?" the Fallen asked. "How about fame? That usually gets people onboard."

The Fallen snapped its fingers. The entity along, with the entire back half of the room were gone. Instead of the black crystal and the pedestal, there was a massive stage lit up with brilliant lights. There was a screen in the background that read "Record of the Year." Yet her attention was brought to the front of the stage where a few people were standing by a microphone. One man picked the mic up; Thorn noticed he was holding an envelope.

"And the Grammy goes to…" the announcer paused as he opened the envelope. He read it and then looked up with a giant smile on his face. " _Fallen Glory_ by the Hex Girls!"

There was a giant round of applause. Thorn was in shock. Sure she thought they were good, but Grammy worthy? Not in her wildest dreams.

"Holy shit we did!" Dusk cheered and she gave Thorn a slight nudge for her to walk up to the stage. Thorn was caught off guard by her friend's behavior and stumbled forward where the click of heels hit the floor. _What?_ She was wearing her red heels and her usual red and black dress. She turned around and was shocked to see rows of people in suits and dresses; there were no cultists and she certainly wasn't in the ceremonial room.

"How?" she muttered.

"Come on Thorn," Luna said as she and Dusk were already heading up to the stage.

Thorn shook her head in confusion and disbelief. Not knowing what to do, she caught up with her friends on stage. She was shaking, overwhelmed by everything. When she got on stage, a woman handed her the golden gramophone. She swallowed as she looked at the trophy; she could barely hold it. _This isn't real._

"Unbelievable," the announcer said. "This is your fourth Grammy this evening. How does that make you feel?"

"I…" Thorn stuttered before gasping as she saw the announcer's eyes glow gold and crimson.

"Pretty decent work right?" the Fallen said with a smile. "Gotta love reality warping." It snapped its fingers and everything reverted back to normal. Well, almost everything. Thorn was still holding the Grammy.

"Woah, where'd you get that?" Dusk asked.

Thorn raised an eyebrow. _She doesn't remember?_ Before Thorn could answer, the Fallen stepped between the two girls.

"There's plenty more rewards if you pledge yourself to me; whaddya say Sally?" The Fallen cheered.

Thorn starred at the award. The temptation to join the Fallen and have anything she wanted was there, especially after what she and her friends went through over the past few days. But what was the cost? Submission. To serve without question. She'd lose her identity and faith and become whatever the Fallen wanted her to be. An Instrument of its freedom. A tool. Something to be used and manipulated. Just like Matella had done to her. And what if she made a mistake or inconvenienced the Fallen? Would she end up like Zachariah, dead and used as a piece of clothing?

With a heavy sigh, Thorn dropped the trophy and it turned to dust upon hitting the floor.

"I can't," Thorn said, shaking her head. "You're just going to use us."

The Fallen rolled its eyes. "Well no shit I'm gonna use you. That's why I'm offering you whatever the fuck you want in exchange for devoting yourselves to me, denouncing all other deities and Cosmics as false, renouncing any preexisting spiritual, moral and philosophical systems and following my word as holy writ."

"I'm not abandoning my beliefs for someone who uses people as things to toss aside or kill when they annoy you or do something wrong," Thorn affirmed.

"That's stupid," the Fallen grunted.

"I don't care, I have my principles and I've fought so hard to keep them," Thorn confidently replied.

The Fallen grimaced; its eyes glowed a fierce gold and crimson.

"You know every religion and belief system ever conceived by humanity is wrong, every single one. I mean even my own worshippers managed to fuck up my background in their texts," the Fallen explained as it struggled to keep calm. "There's no point to hold onto that garbage."

"It's my life, I get to choose what I want to believe in and what you've done goes against that," Thorn exclaimed. "And I'm not about to let some manipulative bastard dictate it!"

Thorn clenched her fists as the Fallen approached; Dusk and Luna quickly got behind her.

"Oh don't you pretend to have the moral high ground you little fucking hypocrite," the Fallen growled. "You've manipulated plenty of people yourself, just like I have."

"No, I'm nothing like you!" Thorn shouted.

"No you're right, I at least try to give them something beneficial," the Fallen said. "You don't give a shit about the people you use."

"No…t-that's not true," Thorn stuttered. She felt weak. _That can't be true. It can't be._

The Fallen smirked. "Let's see, you lie to your manager all the fucking the time so you get away with shit, the most recent of which was lying to him so you could come here, despite the fact he's trying look out for you three. Then how could we forget that you pretty much seduced one of your fans so you could steal his car. Where are your sympathies for them? "

Thorn clutched her head. "No, I…I do care. I shouldn't have done those things." Her legs were wobbling and she found herself struggling to stand. _Stop. You made some mistakes, learn from them. Don't let the guilt take over._

"You don't even know what that guy's name was," the Fallen snickered. It took a few steps toward her until it was right in front of her. Thorn steadied herself and glared at the Fallen as it starred back down at her.

"But it gets better," it said with a malevolent smile. It spun her around, so she was facing Dusk and Luna. Both girls looked worried.

"You used them," it whispered into her ear _._

"No. Shut up," Thorn mumbled between short breaths. Her face was reddening and her eyes were watery.

"They never wanted to come here; Kimberly even warned you about the dangers. But you didn't care, you wanted your little answers, but couldn't face the truth alone. So you threatened to run off into the night and leave them behind, knowing full well they wouldn't let you do that." The Fallen paused. "You guilt-tripped Jane and Kimberly into coming here, knowing full well that there was danger, and you didn't care."

Thorn could only tremble as she looked at Dusk and Luna. Her heart was pounding against her chest. She tried to say something to them, but she choked on the words. _I did that to them._ A single tear fell down her cheek. _I don't deserve them._

"Don't listen to that thing," Luna said.

"We went over this, it's not your fault," Dusk added.

"Sally I've seen what's going on inside that pretty little head of yours," The Fallen said as it tapped Thorn's head and stepped between her and her friends. "I know you're filled with guilt and shame and like a festering weed, it will continue to grow until it completely devours you, leaving you as a husk." The Fallen put a hand on Thorn's shoulder. "I can take away the pain. The guilt. The shame. All of it will melt away. You just have to accept my offer and serve me."

Thorn's eyes widened in anger. _I'm being guilt-tripped._ She swiftly wiped away her tears and grunted. _Accept your mistakes, learn from them and move on._ She was done with people manipulating her and using her emotions against her. She was done with letting fear, guilt and shame take hold of her. She was done with it all; god or no god, she wasn't going to let anyone dictate her life.

"No," she firmly said and she stepped away from the Fallen.

"What!?" the Fallen said in surprise.

"I said no," she repeated with a raised voice.

"Why? I truly can take away the pain," the Fallen replied.

"I don't care," Thorn grunted. "I know I fucked up and made several mistakes. I know I put those I care about in danger and I will always regret doing so." She glared at the Fallen. "But I also know I can't dwell on the past. I have to accept my mistakes and learn from them; only then can I move on and protect my friends from whatever comes at us." She paused. "And I sure as hell don't need you to do that."

The Fallen growled, its eyes burning gold and crimson.

"When a Cosmic offers you a deal, you take it; you're an idiot for rejecting me," the angered entity said.

"No! I'm a Hex Girl and nobody tells the Hex Girls what to do!" Thorn declared.

The Fallen sighed. "Then I'm done with you."

Thorn found herself tied to a large wooden stake in the middle of the main aisle, facing the inhuman entity and the altar. She struggled against the abrasive rope, but she couldn't escape.

"I know it's probably offensive to the many mages who worship me, but I couldn't resist using this classic," the Fallen readdressed the crowd as he walked back to the pedestal.

The ground beneath Thorn combusted and blood-red flames crept up the stake. Thorn writhed against the rope as the intensity of the heat grew. She screamed. The blaze caught her legs, burning away clothing and flesh alike. The stench of her own skin burning made her gag and tears fell down her face as the pain spread across her body in a fiery furry.

"This is what happens when you refuse my deals," the Fallen said. A bottle of liquor appeared in its hand and it turned to Dusk "Now Jane, before you do anything rash…"

In her torment, Thorn hazily saw Dusk plunge her knife into the Fallen's chest. Dusk stepped back after trying to remove the weapon and the knife stuck out of the Fallen. But it rolled its eyes in disappointment as it removed the bloodless blade from its host and tossed the knife into the fire.

"To the pyre you go." The Fallen pointed at Dusk and she was tied next to Thorn, shouting in agony as she burned alongside her.

 _No, not Jane._ She wanted to save her friend from the fire but there was nothing she could do. Sparks of magical energy formed around her hands, but the fire seemed to burn away the magic. With no other options, Thorn did something she hadn't done in a long time: she prayed.

_Please, if there's someone else out there, save Jane and Kim._

"Don't get your hopes up kid," the Fallen laughed. "I heard your prayer; the others don't give a shit about you, your friends or any other mortal. I'm the only one who can save you but you fucked that up."

The fire roared as it climbed farther up her body causing more pain. Her vision blurred. She lost a lot of blood and she knew she was going into shock; death would occur shortly after. Yet she wasn't ready to give up on her friends.

 _They may not care about me or my friends, but they sure as hell care about you._ She tried one last prayer as her body went into shock. _To anyone listening, the Fallen is out._


	16. Iram Dei

Luna watched in terror as her friends burned, their cries and screams deafening. Luna stood there in silence as she trembled before the horrific sight. She swallowed, an attempt to regain control of her short breaths.  _ Don't panic. Don't panic. Their lives are at the literal stake, they need you to save them. You need to stay focused and think clearly if you want to get out of this alive.  _ She straightened herself and turned to the Fallen. The being was glaring down at its burning victims in malice.

"Clever Sally, but it won't work," it grumbled. But after a moment, the Fallen tossed the bottle of liquor it was still holding aside, adjusted its robes and turned to Luna with a bright smile.

"Ahh Kimberly, my favorite Hex Girl," the Fallen said. "Why don't you be a smart mortal and take my offer."

Luna took a deep breath and slowly exhaled. Unlike what happened with Matella, she used her silence as a way to observe and study the entity. While it was no easy task- the loss of several minutes during which Thorn somehow acquired a Grammy certainly didn't help- but she was able to learn a few things. She knew outright rejecting the Fallen was a bad idea but she couldn't serve it after what it did to her friends. She had a plan, albeit one that could fall apart at the slightest mistake, but it was something to work with nonetheless. She wiped the sweat from her brow as she faced the Fallen.

"If I pledge myself to you, I can get whatever I want?" Luna asked.

"That's right," the Fallen answered. "I can make whatever you want happen."

"Okay then, I'll accept your offer," Luna replied. She nervously glanced at her burning friends and then back at the Fallen. "But first you have to spare Dusk and Thorn."

She instinctively took a step backwards, not knowing if her play would work. The Fallen frowned and briefly looked over the dying girls before turning back to Luna. She shuddered but she kept her stance, ready to accept whatever happened.

The Fallen laughed and smiled. "That's why I like you Kim." It snapped its fingers and the fire disappeared, along with the damage it caused to Dusk and Thorn. They gasped and were exhausted, but alive.

"Until we negotiate your duties to me, they'll remain bound; oh, I'm also magic proofing those ropes, so don't try anything," the Fallen said.

_ It worked!  _ Tears in her eyes, Luna ran over to her friends and hugged them.

"Are you two okay?" she cried.

Dusk and Thorn gave a weak nod as tears rolled down their cheeks. They were panting, their faces drained off what little color they had; Luna couldn't even begin to imagine how much pain they were in.

"Why would you?" Thorn softly cried.

Luna gave her a wink and Thorn nodded. Luna continued to hug them. She made sure to cry as loudly as possible to make a scene. The Fallen and the congregation's attention needed to be on her and not Dusk's knife that she carefully slid with her foot to the base of the stake by Thorn.

"Telekinesis…knife…wait," she whispered to Thorn before stepping away from them as the Fallen appeared behind them.

"Now Kimberly," it said, extending a hand. "I do believe we have a deal"

Luna backed away from the entity. She needed to keep the Fallen distracted so Thorn could get an opportunity to cut the rope all while not actually submitting to the Fallen.

"Um…of course…um, Great Merciful One," Luna said trying to sound eager to serve the Fallen. "But before I agree to anything, I want to know what the world will be like after you are free."

"Oh, it will be a wonderful and fair world," the Fallen said as it walked past her and toward the pedestal. Luna smirked; the Fallen was doing exactly what she wanted it to do. "The Light Ones will be annihilated and I shall recreate reality in my image. Those who stand with me shall be rewarded."

She wasn't sure if it was mass hallucination or spell, but Luna saw various members of the congregation with their desires granted: members had incredible wealth and attractive spouses; they were in positions of power and possessed incredible magical abilities and artifacts. The actual cultists gazed in awe at the sights, which was good. Luna nodded to Thorn. The Wiccan levitated the blade and inserted it between the rope and stake. The knife slowly moved up and down as it painstakingly worked its way through the coils.

But Luna was caught off guard by what she saw next. The three of them were on stage playing before the largest crowd she'd ever seen. Yet this wasn't the most shocking element of the vision. Dusk and Thorn were playing their usual instruments, but Luna saw herself on bass, playing at the front of the stage as the lead singer. No more monitoring their performance, making tons of adjustments on the mixer and adding extra stress; she was free to play to her heart's content.

A magazine appeared in her hand. It felt real. She looked at the title. 'Hex Girls Continue to Top Worldwide Charts.' She read the subtitle 'Critics agree, Luna replacing Thorn as lead vocalist was a genius move.'

The scene changed and the magazine was gone. They were on a talk show.

"How does it feel to be one of the most famous bands in history?" the host asked. "I mean, you can talk to an isolated tribe deep in the Amazon and they will know who the Hex Girls are."

"It feels great," the vision Luna said. "It helps get our messages to everyone. We show people that they can be comfortable with who they are while caring for others and the environment."

The vision faded and the room was back to normal.

"All that and more can become real," the Fallen said. "But I need to be truly free. Kneel before me and we can all start the process of freeing me."

Luna hesitated. She glanced at Thorn. The Wiccan had been distracted by the vision and still had a way to go before she cut through the rope. Yet the temptation to accept the Fallen's offer was there. _ Don't. What you saw wasn't real. It doesn't care about us; we're just tools for it. It's trying to trick you. Don't fall for it. _

"I have a couple questions that only a being as great as you can answer," Luna said.

The Fallen grunted. "Make it quick."

"Um, what did the Light Ones do to you?" she asked.

"WHAT DID THEY DO TO ME!?" the Fallen shouted. The entire room shook. "They locked me in a prison to suffer for eternity, tarnished my name, spread lies about me all because I questioned their authority and the Aether's! I questioned our duties and place in the universe. How it was unfair. How we could do better. They didn't like that. They tried to silence me, so I had no choice but to revolt."

Luna knew little of what the Fallen was speaking about but it didn't matter. She needed to keep the Fallen going.

"How could a being as great as you lose to such pathetic entities?" Luna goaded.

"Because of my wretched Tactician stabbing me in the back! If he didn't go rogue, I would've won."

"Um…so the...um Broken ruined your magnificent plans?"

"YES!" The Fallen shouted. "That conniving, selfish, backstabbing bastard fucked everything up; he destroyed the only chance for a righteous universe and left every sapient being to suffer in a meaningless existence!" The Fallen continued to rant about how terrible the Broken was as the being angrily paced back and forth across behind the altar. The room trembled and the Fallen's followers kept their heads to the ground in fear of further angering their god.

With the Fallen no longer paying attention to Luna, she slowly made her way back to the stake. The Wiccan was almost through the ropes, she just needed a little more time.

"Get your arm free and destroy the crystal," Luna whispered to Thorn.

"And how am I supposed to do that?" Thorn replied in a hushed tone.

"Use that magic laser thing. It blew up a marble mausoleum, it should be able to take out that crystal."

"Will that even work?"

"The Fallen said it uses the crystal to communicate with our reality, so destroying it might disconnect the Fallen from the world."

Thorn glanced at the crystal. "I'll try."

Luna quickly backed away from her friends when she heard Esmeralda call out to the Fallen.

"Lord, she is keeping you distra-"

"DON'T EVER INTERRUPT ME AGAIN!" The room trembled as the Fallen jolted its head in the witch's direction. Esmeralda simply lowered her head and backed away. After a few moments, the Fallen calmed itself. "But I do believe you are right."

_ Shit.  _ Luna found herself on her knees before the Fallen unable to move. The Fallen put a hand on her shoulder, the touch unnaturally cold. The entity looked her in the eye and smiled.

"You clever girl, you stirred me up into a frenzy and got me monologuing in order to distract me from you trying to untie them," the Fallen exclaimed. "I should burn them as punishment, but you've really impressed me. You set a goal and develop a plan to achieve it; I like that, now I really want you to join me, we can put those critical thinking skills to good use."

"I just wanted to know more about your vision for the future," Luna lied. "I mean it."

The Fallen withdrew its hand and sighed. "Don't lie to me Kim. You were trying to break them out."

"No I swear I wasn't!" she pleaded.

"Look, I don't know why you're trying to save them. All they do is cause problems and you're stuck cleaning up their messes," the Fallen said.

"No...th-that's not true," Luna stuttered.  _ Don't let it get into your head; it's just trying to use its psychological tricks on you. _

"Yes it is, you just mopped up the mess they made here," it said. "But seriously, do Sally or Jane ever take you into consideration when they decide to do something?"

"I…" Luna didn't know what to say.

"No they don't. They just stick you behind a keyboard and expect you to fix everything for them; I mean, they don't even appreciate you enough to let you play bass." The Fallen knelt down and got eye level with her. "I've shown you that you can do better if only you'd put your foot down and take control of them. Or better yet, ditch them, let those two solve their own problems for once."

Luna shook her head. "No you're wrong, they do care about me and I care about them. We help each other with our problems. Now sure, we get into arguments and sometimes one of us does something really stupid, but we're here for each other."

The Fallen shrugged and sighed. "They don't deserve you; you're too damn selfless." It paused and smirked. "You know how many people could use someone like you?" The Fallen tapped her forehead.

Luna clutched her head. She heard voices. So many voices. An innumerable amount of voices. Male and female, young and old. In every language imaginable. They were all talking at once in a garbled frenzy that drowned out her own thoughts. She could make out snippets of their cries. "Save us!" "Have mercy!" "Help us!" The uproar only grew in intensity as more cries and pleas joined the deafening chorus. Luna wanted to cry. There was so much anguish and melancholy in the noise and she couldn't handle it.

"Please stop," Luna wept.

The Fallen tapped her head and she sighed with relief as the voices vanished.

"That was a small snippet of all those who pray and call out for someone to save them," the Fallen explained. "Now that was only a few thousand people; anymore and your mind would break." There was a long pause. "You couldn't comprehend hearing the prayers of all sapient life in the universe, which is what I hear every second. Granted, I've had an eternity to acclimate to it so it doesn't bother me but it's still so unfortunate that I can't do anything to help them." The Fallen leaned closer to her. "Kim, all those poor souls want a god to save them but nobody cares. You'd think the Light Ones would since they portray themselves as the good guys but they don't despite the fact that they hear them too; hell, the Broken and his traitorous kin are imprisoned on the Earth yet they don't do anything to help your species. No, I'm the only one who cares and I can't do anything while I'm trapped in that wretched cell."

The Fallen stood back up. "Free me Kim so I can end the suffering of everyone. Let me be their god so I can protect them and give them peace and comfort. I'll be there for them, no 'mysterious ways' bullshit; they pray I deliver."

Luna wiped away a few tears. Could the Fallen actually bring peace upon the world; no more suffering and pain? She slowly reached her arm out toward the Fallen.  _ Stop! _ She pulled her arm back.  _ It's just guilt tripping you. Don't listen to it. _

"I guess you're more selfish than I thought, taking away everyone's only chance at peace and harmony like that," the Fallen sighed. "I didn't think you had it in you."

"No, no that's not what I meant," Luna gasped.

"Then what did you mean?" the Fallen deviously asked.

"I-I just can't," Luna muttered.  _ Calm down. You can salvage this. _

"Can't what? Accept my offer and serve me?" the Fallen grumbled.

Luna quickly nodded.

"Why? Cause your friends?"

"Yes!" Luna cried.

"Look if you want your friends back so badly, all you had to do was ask for them," the Fallen said. "Just pledge yourself to me and your friends will be free."

Luna hesitated. She glanced at Dusk and Thorn. By sheer luck, the Fallen hadn't noticed Thorn cutting the rope and the cultists were too afraid to speak up if they knew what was going on. Luna sighed. She just needed to buy Thorn a little more time.

"Um…" Luna muttered, trying to think of something to say.

"I'll sweeten the deal, I'll not only free them, but I'll forgive their sins against me and they won't have to serve me. I'll wipe their memories, so that you can serve and worship me in secret. On top of that, I'll make both you and Jane witches, so the three of you can have a little coven and practice your magic together. It'll be perfect, everything you could possibly want and all you ha-" the Fallen stopped. For a brief moment, Luna could've swore she saw a flash of fear wash over its face. It quickly glanced at the ceiling looking around as if expecting something to descend upon all of them; its eyes glowing a fierce gold and crimson. Luna noticed that the being's hands were twitching and the Fallen itself seemed to shudder.

"Give me a minute Kim," it said, never once taking its eyes off the ceiling. "Esmeralda! Marcus! Over here!" The Fallen and its two worshipers grouped behind the pedestal and conversed. What they were speaking about, Luna couldn't hear.

Luna sighed. She had no idea what was going on and that was worrying. She toyed about running over to the stake and untying her friends, but the Fallen seemed troubled, almost spooked, which made the being unpredictable. She decided to stay put since Thorn was so close to breaking free and, worst case scenario, the Fallen's current offer was probably the best she was going to get.  _ I'll take the deal if it means saving them. _

The Fallen turned away from Esmeralda and Marcus while the two mages started drawing something on the ground. It walked back to Luna and looked very upset.

"New plan, you're going to serve me without question or I'll restart the fire with you in it," the Fallen stated.

Luna shuddered at the sudden change in hostility. "What happened to the old deal?"

"Things change," it growled.

Luna's heart was racing. She couldn't speak and this only angered the Fallen.

"Hurry up! I'm losing my patience with you!" an agitated Fallen said as it kept looking at the ceiling.

Luna glanced at Thorn. She needed a minute at most. But Luna didn't have an extra minute to spare as the Fallen kept glancing between her and the ceiling with glowing eyes

"I…" she managed to say.

"Spit it out!"

"I…I…" Luna closed her eyes.  _ Hurry up Thorn. You can do it. _

* * *

"Come on," Thorn said through gritted teeth. The knife cut deeper into the rope, relieving some of the pressure. Despite the rope loosening, she could only wiggle her arm. She grunted and the knife cut quicker. She was so tantalizingly close.

"I'm done with this. You got ten seconds to answer before I smite you into oblivion," the Fallen warned Luna and it started counting down.

Thorn's heart raced. She could feel the magic coursing through her waiting to erupt in angry furry. The knife cut even faster.

"Eight, seven, six…" Its eyes were glowing gold and crimson and black energy swelled around it like an approaching storm.

The knife was cutting fast enough to create smoke and her face was illuminated by the glow of red magic that formed around her trapped hand.

"Five, four, three…"

SNAP!

The coil broke and Thorn freed her arm and raised it. The Fallen looked at her. The two made eye contact.

"You don't fuck with the Hex Girls."

The brilliant beam of blood-red magic fired from her hand. The Fallen simply watched as the red beam tore through the crystal, shattering it in a violent explosion that sent shards flying everywhere. The rope ensnaring her and Dusk immediately fell away and the two girls dropped to their feet. The Fallen's vessel began to tremble as black energy left the body.

"This was an excellent learning experience," it calmly muttered as most of its body went limp. Blood gushed from the stab wound and its head fell sideways as its snapped neck could no longer support it. "I think it's time to do some restructuring."

It snapped its fingers and the vessel crumpled to the floor, leaving a black, smoke-like mass hovering above it. The entire compound quaked. Alarms blared and fissures opened up. The ceiling crumbled and further explosions rocked the facility. Small portals formed where Esmeralda and Marcus were drawing, and the two fled through them before the portals closed; the other cultists who weren't crushed by falling debris or fell into the widening crevices ran to the doors, which had fallen down.

"Run!" Dusk shouted.

Thorn didn't need to be told to do so. She and Luna were right behind the blonde.

_ Go ahead and run, Hex Girls; you can't escape the fate you've written for yourselves. You've chosen pain, so that's all you three shall know, my will be done. _

Thorn shook her head as the Fallen's voice echoed in her head. She noticed her friends doing the same, suggesting that they also heard the voice.

_ Sally McKnight, you will fall first. And when you do, I will laugh as you become what you fear, for no mage has escaped it. _

"Shut up!" Thorn shouted as she and her friends neared the doorway. "You can't do anything to me!"

_ Hehehe! I don't have to do anything, for you'll do it to yourself. _

Thorn grunted and tried to ignore the Fallen. The Fallen was wrong; all it was trying to do was torment her one last time before it was dragged back to whatever hell it came from.

_ I'll see ya later Sally. _

Thorn looked back and saw a brief shimmer of crimson and gold as the Fallen's incorporeal form dissipated before she and her friends ran through the doorway.

* * *

They ran through the burning and collapsing hallways. Explosions sent unfortunate cultists into the air. Thorn blasted away falling chunks of concrete and steel as the Hex Girls made rounded a corner.

"Where do we go!?" Dusk shouted.

"I think the exit is just straight down the hall," Thorn replied.

They almost made it. Thorn could see the metal detectors of Processing. But the Wiccan noticed flashes of multi-colored light coming from one room. She could sense the raw magic leaking from the room and it felt wrong, like that magic wasn't supposed to be mixing. She stopped and cast a barrier around her and her bandmates.

The room violently twisted before jettisoning matter and magic in a powerful shockwave that vaporized unprotected cultists and caused the ceiling to collapse, filling the hall with earth. Thorn felt the blast yet her barrier remained steady. Unfortunately the shockwave pushed them in their protective sphere through a wall and into another room. Thorn gasped and the barrier shattered, causing them to fall to the ground.

"This isn't good," Luna said. She pointed to where they came through the wall. The hole was filled in with dirt and debris.

Dusk got up and tried the door. "It's blocked."

"We can't be trapped," Thorn said. She looked around the room. There was a large table surrounded by chairs. That was it.

She ran over to the door and raised her hands. The rubble behind the door vibrated and the Wiccan's arms trembled as she tried raising them. She gasped and her telekinetic hold on the rubble was gone. Panting, she tried again and fell to her hands and knees. She raised a weary hand but Luna lowered it.

"It's too heavy, stop straining yourself," she said, helping Thorn to her feat.

Thorn nodded and Luna walked her to one of the seats. The Wiccan took a moment to catch her breath.

"DAMNIT!" Thorn cried as she hurled a blast of blue energy at the door. The door shattered into small fragments and more dirt spilled into the room.

"Chill out, that's not going to work," Dusk said.

"I have to try something," Thorn panted. "I'm not gonna let us die in here after what we went through."

"Blasting at the debris could cause the room to collapse," Luna said pointing to the unstable ceiling.

Thorn scowled and with a wave of her hand, sent several chairs flying into the wall.

"So what are we going to do," Thorn grunted in frustration.

"I'm not sure yet," Luna admitted. "But give me some time to figure it out."

The room trembled and hairline cracks snaked across the ceiling.

"Well, think of something fast," Thorn stated as she got up from her seat.

As Luna sat in deep thought and Dusk leaned against the wall, Thorn paced back and forth in exasperation.  _ Fuck! This is not happening! _ They prevailed against two real ghosts. They brought down Matella and ruined all her schemes. They escaped execution and beat armed cultists. They even defeated a god. Tears rolled down her cheeks. Surviving all that, only to be crushed by rubble.  _ No, that can't happen. I won't let it. _

Thorn's pace quickened with each increasingly stronger tremor. As smart as Luna was, Thorn didn't think she could come up with a solution. Her fears were proven when she suddenly stopped in her tracks.

There was another tremble and something burst from behind the wall opposite of the entryway. The wall gave way and plumes of fire and smoke filled the room. The three girls darted away from the flames.

"Fuck that was close," Dusk said.

But they weren't in the clear. Just as Luna predicted, a portion of the ceiling collapsed and crushed the table. More rubble fell and in a terrible chain reaction, a cascade of stone, metal and earth came crashing down upon them.

Thorn cast another barrier around her and her friends. The room was filled and they were trapped within their little magical bubble. Shaking, sweating and out of breath, Thorn struggled against the massive weight but it was too much for her. She collapsed and the barrier cracked; dirt fell through the cracks, showering them in dust.

As their pocket of space filled with dirt, Thorn felt her friends move against her and tightly hugged each other. They remained silent for they didn't need to say anything. They grasped each other's hands, refusing to let fate separate them. She looked at them one last time. With teary eyes, they smiled. There was no anger or sadness behind their eyes. Only love. Dusk and Luna gave a slight nod; they were ready. Thorn smiled back; she was ready. They all closed their eyes and Thorn let the barrier disappear.


	17. What Is Said Is Done

Thorn awoke. Or at least she assumed she did, as it was more a feeling of sudden awareness rather than waking up, like someone flipped a switch between nothing and something. That something, Thorn saw, was a hazy, blueish-gray void that seemed to go on forever. She tried to sit up and assess her surroundings further, but she couldn't move. She couldn't do as much as blink; in fact, she couldn't hear her own heartbeat or breathing. All she could do was stare into the endless expanse and think.

_ Is…is this the afterlife?  _ Not that she was expecting pearly gates or fire and brimstone, but this didn't feel right.

_ No. _

A new voice, deep, powerful and inhuman yet quick and calming, answered in her mind. Thorn felt comfort, like whatever was with her would keep her safe. She was relieved to know that she was (presumably) alive. But that moment of relief ended when she realized her friends were nowhere to be seen.

_ Dusk! Luna! _

_ I have them. _

Thorn watched has as two gray, rope-like tendrils hoisted Dusk and Luna into view. Their eyes were closed, but somehow Thorn knew they weren't dead and that they were safe.

_ Did you save us? _

_ I did. _

_ Why? _

There was silence. Thorn wanted to frown. Whatever was here had saved them and Thorn had no explanation for why. Was it because she alerted this entity to the Fallen? Or did it have some other purpose for them? Or, contrary to the Fallen's words, something cared about them.

_ Who are you? _

More silence.

_ Are you a god? _

_ No. _

She rattled her mind for what the cultists had called the Fallen.

_ A Cosmic? _ She wasn't sure what the difference between the two were.

No answer.

_ What do you want from us? _

Again no answer.

Another tendril came into view, twisting and turning like a snake as it approached her. She wasn't afraid, if anything she felt at peace as the tendril coiled around her body. She didn't feel anything physical but she saw white light beyond her friends. The tendrils pulled her and her friends into the blinding light.

_ Where are you taking us? _

_ Outside. There is much to be done. _

Thorn sat up gasping and in a cold sweat. She patted herself down but found nothing. No tendril. No void. Just the loose earth beneath her and the crisp night air around her. She looked around; she was outside the building they initially entered.

"Thank you" she quietly whispered. She looked to the clear sky, hoping whatever saved her was looking down upon her. Of course, only the stars and a full moon shone through the trees.

She heard coughing nearby and looked toward the noise. Dusk and Luna were a few feet away dazed and confused.

"Where are we?" Luna groaned.

"Outside," Thorn stuttered as she recalled the departing words of whatever she encountered.

"How'd we get here?" Dusk asked, rubbing her head; Luna shrugged.

"You don't remember?" Thorn asked.

"Remember what?" Luna replied.

"Yeah, I only remember us about to get crushed and then the next moment we're here," Dusk said.

Thorn wasn't sure if she should tell them about what she experienced, not that she fully understood what happened to her. Perhaps the Fallen was wrong. Maybe someone or something did care about them. She didn't have answers and, for the first time, was okay with that.

"Never mind," Thorn said with a smile. "All that matters is that we're here and we're together."

She got to her feet and helped her friends up. As they did, the ground shook behind them in one final, fierce tremor; it sounded like the entire underground complex collapsed. Thorn watched as the building buckled and sank into the ground. Dust rose into the sky while trees behind the former building fell.

Thorn simply watched with a somber gaze. So many cultists were dead and most of them didn't interact with her or her bandmates; only a handful of individuals lied, harmed or nearly killed her and her friends. Perhaps there were more people like George buried under the ruble. She gave them a moment of silence before sighing. It was all behind her. As Dusk said, move on. She turned to her friends.

"What a night," she said with a slight chuckle. "I still have to return that guy's car."

Dusk and Luna gave each other a confused look.

"Um, did you get brain damage or something?" Dusk asked.

"Nah, I just want to get back on the road and play some killer music," Thorn said. She started walking toward the gate. It was open and there were multiple, unmarked vans parked there, though she didn't see anyone.

Dusk and Luna followed her.

"What about your magic?" Luna questioned.

Thorn stopped. "What about it?"

"You never got real answers about it considering everything Matella said could be a lie," the redhead reasoned.

Thorn grinned. She twirled her finger in the air, leaving a trail of blue sparks.

"I'll just have to figure it out myself," she said with a wink. "Though, it'd be nice if I got some extra help along the way."

Dusk and Luna smiled and followed her to the car.

As they were walking by the vans, Thorn heard some rubble crumbling but made nothing of it. She then heard a click and assumed it was just more crumbling.

"Move!" Dusk shouted. Thorn gasped as Dusk grabbed her and Luna by the wrists and pulled them behind a van. Puffs of dirt sprung from the ground where she had been standing and the deafening cracks of gunfire ceased.

"Where'd it come from?" Dusk asked, trying to peek around the van.

"I don't know, I didn't see the shooter," Thorn said. She tried looking through the van's window but the window shattered as a bullet flew just over her. She dove to the ground and covered her head. Bullets pelted the van shattering the windows and showering the girls in glass. Then just as quickly as it began, the gunfire stopped.

"Is he out of bullets?" Luna quietly asked.

"I hope so," Thorn replied.

She heard someone dart across the open ground and slide behind another van between them and the gate. The shooter quickly reloaded.

"He moved," Thorn warned her friends.

"Damnit, he's trying to flank us," Dusk shouted.

She was correct. The rear driver's side light was shot out and a second volley of bullets hit the ground next to them. The girls scurried to the front of the van, narrowly avoiding the shots.

"I see him," Thorn grunted. She fired a bolt of green energy at the armed cultist taking cover behind the front of the second van.

The front of the adjacent van blew up and Thorn lost sight of the assailant in the dust and smoke.

"Tell me you hit him," Dusk begged.

Thorn didn't respond as she honestly didn't know. She peeked through the broken window. She saw the burning van and a broken assault rifle laying on the ground.

"I think we're good," Thorn replied with an exhausted sigh.

Something bounced off the roof of their van and fell to the ground less than a foot away from Thorn. She looked at the object. It resembled a dumbbell, maybe half a foot in length and a couple inches in width, and was covered in several metal circles.

_ Wait is that a…FUCK! _

BANG!

She couldn't see and her ears were ringing. She clutched her head and fell to the ground. She screamed, although she couldn't hear herself do so. She laid on the ground, unable to protect herself or her friends from the approaching cultist.

* * *

Dusk crawled around the side of the van carefully to avoid the attention of their assailant. She got lucky, she was just out of range of the flash grenade. But Luna and Thorn weren't as fortunate as they were both stunned by the grenade, the latter taking the brunt of the flash.

Dusk drew her knife and prepared to defend her friends. She saw the cultist come into view. His uniform was charred and torn while his mask was damaged; the upper right portion of his mask was missing and Dusk could see his eye. A green eye. Cyrus.

"You blasphemed against the Fallen and destroyed my temple, which I could, somehow, careless about," he said seemingly more to Thorn than anyone else. "But you killed Matella and I cannot forgive you for that."

He drew a pistol. Without any concern for herself, Dusk ran around the van and charged Cyrus. But as she lunged for the gun, Cyrus spun around.

She grabbed his wrist and tried to push it aside. The gun went off.

"FUCK!" Dusk cried, dropping the knife. The bullet grazed her waist and it felt like she had her hand on a burning stove. She gritted her teeth and despite the pain, she grabbed the barrel of the gun with her free hand and pushed away Cyrus's arm so the gun was pointing toward the woods. It went off again, firing aimlessly into the night. Cyrus slammed her into the side of the van, trying to free his arm but Dusk kept the gun pointed away from her. With all her strength, she bent Cyrus's wrist downward and the gun slipped out of his hand.

Dusk's head slammed into the van as Cyrus landed a punch with his free hand. The blow caused Dusk to let the gun fall to the ground. He landed several more punches and Dusk heard a crack; she was almost certain that her nose was now broken.

With her head throbbing and vision blurred, Dusk could do little as Cyrus grabbed her head and slammed it into his knee. Dusk teetered for a moment and collapsed. As she hit the ground she saw the gun and reached for it; she shouted as Cyrus stepped on her hand.

"I wanted to kill the witch first," Cyrus said. "She's the one that took her away from me." He picked up her knife and pulled her up by her hair, exposing her neck. "But if you want to die first, so be it."

She shivered as she felt the cold steel against her skin.

"I hope the black-haired bitch is watching so she understands the pain of losing a person she loves."

There was a muffled grunt as the knife fell away from her. Dusk's eyes widened as Luna jumped onto Cyrus's back, clawing and scratching at any exposed skin; Dusk couldn't remember a time when Luna was in a physical fight.

Cyrus stumbled backward from the additional weight and accidentally kicked the gun under the van. Dusk gritted her teeth and looked for her knife but couldn't find it. She saw the gun. Without thinking, she scrambled to her feet and dove for the firearm.

She nudged the pistol grip with her fingertips. She couldn't crawl under the van as the vehicle was too low to the ground. She desperately clawed at the handgun and the grip slowly turned to her.  _ YES! _ She had it.

Luna shouted and there was a loud thud, like someone was thrown to the ground. A moment later, Cyrus grabbed Dusk's ankle and with one powerful tug, pulled her away from the van; the pull was unexpected enough for Dusk to lose the gun.

Dusk kicked with all her might but Cyrus pinned her down with his legs. He was on top of her with the knife in hand. In a downward strike, he tried to stab her but Dusk grabbed the blade. The steel cut through her flesh and Dusk screamed. Cyrus twisted the knife, slicing the palms of her hands. She cried. Her grip on the blade weakened and her arms buckled. The knife fell closer to her and she cried for help.

No one answered.

Even in her painful state, Dusk held back the tears. She gritted her teeth and looked Cyrus in the eye. He stared at her with the hate and malice of someone who lost everything. Dusk gasped as she felt the prick of the knife tip against her chest. She couldn't hold her tears back any longer and she let them flow. Like her tears, she couldn't hold back the knife for much longer.

* * *

She could still see the afterimage of the grenade as she rubbed her eyes. She heard muffled shouts; people fighting, though she couldn't distinguish between individuals. Thorn tried sitting up but her headache was too much and she fell back down. The indistinct clamor slowly came into focus.

"Dusk," Thorn muttered.

She sat up and the headache resumed. She wanted to lay back down, but Dusk needed her. She struggled to her feet, barely keeping her balance. Through the fading afterimage, she saw the three of them. Luna was on the ground, clutching her face and groaning. But Dusk…Thorn only knew one other time when Dusk cried the way she was.

Thorn hobbled toward the fight, sparks of green energy forming around her hand.

"GET AWAY FROM HER!" Thorn fired a blast of green energy. The bolt of magic whizzed through the air like lightning hitting Cyrus in a loud smack. The cultist was propelled off Dusk and sent flying several feet away.

But Cyrus was resilient; he grunted as he quickly got back to his feet with the knife in hand.

"Don't even think about it," Thorn said. She focused on his arm. Cyrus shouted as his forearm twisted around, the bone snapping and the knife fell. Thorn clenched her fist and Cyrus grunted as he couldn't move. Thorn flicked her wrist and Cyrus was slammed into the van.

"Stay. Down." Thorn warned. She released her telekinetic grip and Cyrus slumped to the ground.

The Wiccan ran to her friends.

"Are you alright Jane?" Thorn asked.

Dusk wiped her tears away. "I've been better," she said as she winced when she tried to sit up.

Indeed, the blonde's face was bruised and bloodied, worse than any drunken fistfight she'd been in. But Thorn noticed how badly her hands were.

"We need to bandage your hands," Thorn said. She glanced at the knife and it flew to Thorn. She cut off her sleeves and wrapped Dusk's hands with them.

"Thanks," Dusk replied.

"We'll have to disinfect it when we get back, I have some herbal ointment we can use," Thorn added.

Dusk nodded. Thorn helped Dusk up and then her heart skipped a beat when she noticed the bullet wound.

"Your side its-"

"Tis but a scratch," Dusk chuckled.

Thorn frowned. "Don't joke with me. Is it really?"

"Yeah. It's not bleeding much and we can wait till we're back at the bus to treat it," Dusk responded with more seriousness. "Now let's help Luna."

Thorn sighed and the two turned to Luna. The redhead was still on the ground clutching her face.

"Let me see your face Kim," Thorn said as she knelt down to help her friend.

"It hurts," Luna groaned.

Thorn pulled Luna's hand away from her face.

"Oh get up, you just have a black eye," Dusk said.

Luna looked at Thorn for confirmation.

"You'll be fine," Thorn assured the worried girl. Luna sighed as Thorn and Dusk helped her up.

"Let's get out of here," Thorn said as they made their way to the gate.

But as they passed the van, Thorn caught a flutter of movement next to the vehicle. Her heart raced as she saw Cyrus reach for something under the van; a glimmer of moonlight revealed that it was a gun.

"NO!" She thrust her arm forward, unleashing a blast of telekinetic energy.

CRACK!

Thorn covered her mouth and shuddered as she heard the sickening crack of Cyrus's head hitting the van. His body fell sideways, smearing a line of blood on the van. Thorn couldn't stop staring at the empty, green eye that seemed to stare into her very soul.

"I…I…didn't mean to-" Thorn abruptly stopped. Her stomach ached and moments later, she threw up.

"Sally, it's okay," Dusk said, grabbing Thorn by her shoulders after she was finished.

"I …killed him," she stuttered. "I killed him." She wrapped her arms around herself and shuddered; she couldn't look away from his eye.

"Don't look at him, look at us," Dusk said forcibly turning Thorn's head to them.

"It's not your fault," Luna said.

"You warned him and he didn't listen," Dusk added.

Despite her friends' assurances, her comments from the Wicca exhibit echoed in her mind:  _ we try to help people and see the good in them. We don't kill _ . It was the last semblance of her past that she clung to. It separated her from all the mages she met; literally every single one of them—from the damned Ravencrofts and Alexander Levre to Matella, Zachariah and the other mage cultists—was a killer, tried to kill, or threatened to kill others.  _ You're a witch and you'll kill someone inevitably; that's just the nature of magic and I know no mage who has escaped this. _ Matella was right. Thorn's eyes started tearing up _. Sally McKnight, you will fall first. And when you do, I will laugh as you become what you fear, for no mage has escaped it. _ Thorn could almost hear the Fallen's sinister laugh mocking her.  _ And now I'm one of them.  _ She shivered and couldn't walk.

"Come on, let's get back to the car," Luna said, though Thorn wasn't really paying attention to her.

Dusk and Luna walked her from the van through the gate and to the car; she pictured Cyrus's dead eye for the entire time.

"Keys," Dusk said.

Thorn only half-acknowledged the blonde by handing her purse to Dusk. As Dusk dug through her purse in search of the keys, Thorn stared at the now unrecognizable reflection in the rear window, and it wasn't because of the bruises and dirt on her face. She quietly sobbed.  _ Am I even a Wiccan? _

The door opened and the witch's reflection was gone, replaced with the messy backseat of the car.

"Lay down, try to get some rest," Luna said, clearing off the seats.

Thorn crawled onto the seat and pulled her knees to her chest and curled up in her spot. Luna sat next to her and Thorn rested her head on Luna's lap. Luna placed her hand on Thorn's shoulder; the witch didn't want her friend to leave.

The car started up.

"Luna, how the hell do we get back?" Dusk asked; she was exhausted.

"My phone's dead," Luna stated. "Just drive till you hit pavement, the interstate isn't far from there."

The car started moving but swiftly came to a stop.

"My head's fucking killing me and I'm injured, can you drive?" Dusk wearily said.

"I'm with Thorn," Luna replied without looking at Dusk. She seemed distant. "Take something for it."

Dusk sighed. "Take what?" Dusk glanced at Thorn. "Do you have something?"

Thorn continued to stare off into space, trapped in her own thoughts.

"Willow," she barely mumbled.

"What? Like the tree?" Dusk questioned.

"White willow bark, she has capsules in her purse," Luna angrily responded. "Take one and get driving."

The two got into a pointless argument as Dusk rummaged through the witch's purse. As Luna shifted in her seat, she accidentally nudged the bottle of vodka. Thorn watched the bottle roll across the floor and stop within arm's reach of her. An escape. She stared at it for what seemed like an eternity before giving in. She grabbed the bottle and drank. She kept drinking and didn't plan to stop until the pain was gone.

The bottle was yanked from her hands and she spilled vodka on herself.

"Holy fuck Sally! You can't be drinking!" Dusk yelled. She tossed the bottle out the car window.

Thorn whimpered.

"Hey relax," Luna calmly said patting the troubled girl's back. "I know this is tough, but Dusk's right, drinking is the last thing you should be doing." The redhead smiled. "We're both here for you Sally."

Thorn ever-so-slightly smiled.

"I just want to go back to playing music," Thorn said between sniffles. "No magic. No cults or gods; I don't even want to get answers to my magic or anything else. Just music and you two."

Luna looked away for a moment, before turning back to Thorn. "If that's what you want then I'll support it."

"Yeah," Dusk added after returning Thorn's purse to her. "I'd prefer it if we didn't have people trying to kill us every ten minutes."

The car started moving and the silent journey back to the world she knew began. But even with familiarity ahead of her, she knew things would never truly go back to normal. Her old self was dead, buried in the rubble, and the new woman that emerged from the ruins faced an uncertain future. But whatever happened next, Dusk and Luna would be at her side.

Thorn's smile grew a little larger and she stopped trembling. As the car left the dirt road and hit the actual pavement, Thorn found herself yawning. A few minutes later, she drifted into solace slumber.


	18. Epilogue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone,
> 
> Thanks for making it to the end. I had a lot of fun writing this and I hope I did the Hex Girls justice, as they don't have much content out there. I do plan to write a sequel, as well as some fics that focus on the Scooby gang as well. Anyways, enjoy the epilogue and feel free to provide your thoughts on the fic. Thanks again.

The following evening...

Esmeralda and Marcus nervously walked down the hallway. The Hex Girls had thrown a wrench into the Fallen's plan by alerting the second Cosmic to the location of the temple and He had to improvise. He had told them His plan to save the Order and prevent the other Cosmic from discovering, and subsequently slaughtering, His followers. In doing so, the crystal and the temple had to be destroyed. So by sacrificing one temple and His ability to communicate with the world with ease, He saved the rest of the Order. The Fallen gave Esmeralda and Marcus a chance to create a portal and escape. They were thankful for their Lord and if it wasn't for His word, they'd be screwed as their failure to avert the disaster at the temple would have resulted in their executions. Despite this, they still had to report the incident to their superior.

They stopped at the ornate door. Esmeralda picked at her collar and straightened her hat while Marcus wiped the sweat from his brow.

"I don't want to do this," the witch anxiously said.

"Neither do I, but we must follow protocols," the warlock responded. "Or else we'll be even more screwed."

The two mages took a deep breath as the door opened on its own and the two begrudgingly entered.

The room was illuminated solely by large monitors replaying footage from the Revelation and when Matella fought the three girls. A large chair (though one could easily mistake it for a throne) was positioned in the center of the room facing the monitors.

"Well," a deep, authoritative yet human voice said from the chair. "What is the status of Temple Thirty-Three?"

The two mages froze.

Esmeralda swallowed. "It's…a loss. Seventy-three casualties."

"But we've performed a Class Three Amnesia spell on the local populace and an emergency response team has cleaned up the area; the temple may have well never existed," Marcus quickly added in an attempt to salvage their situation.

"That's correct," Esmeralda said with a fake smile. "We've also had a phantom recovery team extract valuable items from the wreckage."

"So then you have everything under control?" the voice asked.

"Absolutely," Esmeralda cheered.

"So what of the Hex Girls?" the voice inquired.

The mages looked away from the individual in the chair.

"Well…" Esmeralda began. She looked to her acquaintance for help.

"One of our hunters was killed after engaging a witch in combat on the surface; blood from multiple individuals was discovered by a van. We are currently analyzing the blood samples as well as the residual magic for identification," Marcus explained.

There was a long uncomfortable silence and the two mages were ever-so-slightly shaking.

"You two have no idea what happened to them," the voice stated.

"No…" Esmeralda began but was cut-off as the figure in the chair raised an arm.

Both mages recoiled as they heard the clanking of metal against the floor and several green eye-like lights shone from the shadows. The two considered themselves powerful mages, but they didn't dare face the Automata lurking in the darkness of the room, let alone the individual in the chair.

"Have you recovered their bodies? Have there been any reports from any local hospitals?" the man in the chair asked.

Neither mage answered.

"In all likelihood they survived and escaped," the man said.

"And we will deal with them," Esmeralda quickly rectified.

There was more clatter from the Automata and they moved closer to the mages, yet they remained obscured by the darkness.

"Indeed you will Esmeralda; with Zachariah deceased and your temple gone, I'm putting you in charge of a task force to kill the Hex Girls," the voice commanded. The monitors changed to images of the band with personal information about each musician next to their driver's licenses image: age, home locations, the names of family members and close associates, financial records, tour dates; there were even news clippings showing them with the famous Mystery Incorporated unmasking fake vampires in Australia.

"I want this done quietly and without error; we have their tour schedules and we know where they'll be, so you have ample time to prepare," the man clarified. "Do not fail me Esmeralda."

"I won't," she said bowing her head. "Those girls are as good as dead."

The two mages turned around and left the room as quickly as their feet could carry them.

As the door closed, the individual in the chair placed a small, decorative box on the armrest and gently opened it.

"O Almighty Lord, I swear to you that Sally McKnight, Kimberly Moss and Jane Warren will perish. We shall strike them down in your name and their lives will be the price for the blasphemy committed against you."

With his prayer said, the black crystal shard— recovered earlier in the morning by a ghost he personally sent— emitted a faint glow.

"And once they are dead, we shall set you free."

The glow grew brighter before going dark. He closed the box and placed it on a small altar before him. He leaned back in his chair and looked at the monitors. The three troublesome girls had no way of knowing it, but it was only a matter of time before the Fallen's wrath was brought upon the Hex Girls.


End file.
